Good news for buyers – Wales houses prices fall 0.7% in the 12 months to July

The latest ONS house price index (HPI) for the 12 months to July shows the price of property in Wales fell by 0.7%

UK house prices increased by 3.3%, up from a 3.1% increase in the 12 months to June 2013.

The year-on-year decrease in Wales is not as sharp as Scotland -2.0%  

The growth in property prices is being driven by London 9.7% and South East  2.6%  and the East Midlands 2.4%

The new data from the ONS backs up data from the land registry  which show house prices in Flintshire continuing to fall.

The value of property in England and Wales combined, grew by 0.8% with the average house costing £164,098

However, Wales saw the largest annual decrease in house prices by 2.2% with the average house price falling to £115,148

Flintshire house prices faired slightly worse than the Wales national average, 2.3% lower than 12 months ago

The average house price in Flintshire as of July this year was £121,559 which is over £6000 more than the average house price across Wales.

The Council Of Mortgage Lenders has reported more first-time buyers were advanced loans in the second quarter of 2013 in Wales than in any other single quarter since the end of 2007.

This positive growth saw house purchase loans in Wales up a third in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2013.

A total of 2,700 loans were advanced to first-time buyers in the second quarter of 2013 which was a significant increase on the 2,000 loans in the first quarter and up from 2,100 in the second quarter of 2012.

The average value of the loans also increased to £93,453 in the second quarter compared to £88,355 in the first quarter.

This meant that there was a stronger growth in the total value of lending to first-time buyers in Wales which totalled £270m, an increase of 35% on the second quarter last year and 42% higher than the first quarter of 2013.

The typical deposit of first-time buyers in Wales remains at 15%, something that has not changed since the third quarter of 2011 and lower than the 20% typical deposit size seen on average throughout the UK.

Growth in lending to home movers was not as strong as first-time buyers although remains positive, 3,400 loans were advanced in Wales, worth £410m, which was an increase of 31% on the first quarter.

However, this was actually a decrease of 3% compared to the second quarter of last year.