Government shake up of house price indices

The UK Government has just announced that it has asked the Office of National Statistics to investigate the coherence and comparability of house price indices..

Tax payers are currently funding two indices, produced by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Land Registry.

Add in the indices produced by the RICS, major estate agents, property portals and building societies and you can begin to see why the general public gets confused as to the state of the market.

I’m all for market clarity and a shake up in the way that property is marketed and analysed.

Nobody will ever be able to predict the future of house prices but we certainly should be able to say what they have done with some degree of accuracy and consistency.

If you have a view on the usefulness of any of the current indices please do let us know and we’ll be sure to pass it on to Messieurs Cameron and Clegg.

Author Biography

Graham Downie has 25 years international property experience including longs stints at both Savills & Chesterton.  In 2003 he moved to Cognac, SW France where he now practices as a private client buying agent. He also offers freelance marketing & writing services to companies servicing the property industry.

email: info@grahamdownie.com

twitter: @cognacproperty

blog: http://cognacproperty.blogspot.com/