LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--House Price Analytics, an interactive resource that puts all the latest UK house price data in one place for the first time, launched today with some myth-busting facts about existing house price figures. The free-to-download House Price Analytics app brings together data from each of the main house price indices – Rightmove, Zoopla, Halifax, Nationwide, LSL and eighteen years of house price data from HM Land Registry – to enable home buyers and sellers to better understand house price figures in their respective context, and reveal the real reasons why some portals suggest the average asking price for a home in the UK is £252,418 when other indices state the average price of properties sold is £167,063.
House Price Analytics uncovers the facts behind the headlines. Developed jointly by UK property market experts, Agent Analytics, and Roambi, the business app that redesigns the way you experience data, House Price Analytics enables property market observers, homebuyers and sellers, and estate agents to make far more accurate and informed observations about the UK property market. By gathering all the main indices on one app, House Price Analytics reveals some major index misinterpretations:
DISPARITY: The disparity between a house price portal’s suggested asking price and HM Land Registry’s reported sold price is currently 47.4 percent nationally. This suggests that the “real” asking price actually averages out at just £175,486, not the £252,418 suggested by the portals. Home sellers would need to sell for at least 40 percent more than this if they are to get anywhere near the price the portals suggest.
MISSING DATA: This differential is further extended when it is taken into consideration that the monthly HM Land Registry figures exclude new builds and properties that are being sold for the first time since 1995. House Price Analytics sampled 10,000 recent listings and - after removing most of the duplicates caused by multiple listing - found that some 59 percent of properties listed on a portal would not have shown up in a monthly HM Land Registry report. The 41 percent which would have been reported by a HM Land Registry report were 11.5 percent cheaper than the whole, thereby giving further fuel to the house price portal/HM Land Registry divide and suggesting that the HM Land Registry average price might more accurately be shown as £186,275.
ASKING PRICE PROBLEM: The asking prices used by some house price portals in compiling their indices are ‘initial asking prices’ representing properties new-to-market the preceding month only. They do not take account of an average 28.7 percent price reduction during the period in which the property is marketed before a sale is achieved. Additionally, Zoopla quotes figures based on all stock, not just new-to-market, thereby inflating asking prices by including the 46 percent of properties which are currently unsold – which is almost always due to overpricing. The longer properties are on the market the greater their influence over prices – especially those at the top of the market.
TOP END UNSOLD: House Price Analytics found that asking prices are significantly raised by the weighting of top end properties remaining on the market and which suffer multiple reductions. House Price Analytics reveals that an average of 9.5 percent of properties over £5 million were marked as being under offer or sold Subject to Contract (STC), against some 54 percent of properties under £5 million. There are nearly 1,300 properties currently listed in London with an average price of more than £5 million.
TOP END MULTIPLE LISTING: House Price Analytics sampled ten properties over £20 million and found that they were all listed with more than one estate agent - some with as many as six. House price portals primarily use a mean average basis of calculation, so the effect of this multiple counting is very significant, especially in London, where one property is listed at £68 million.
In addition to exposing property market misinterpretations, House Price Analytics empowers homebuyers and sellers to understand everything from seasonal fluctuations to average speed of sale with the wave of a finger. Easy to understand visualizations enable users to interact with charts of asking price/sold price movements between different time periods, based on index chosen.
Commenting on the innovation, Richard Rawlings, one of the UK’s most prominent property market commentators and the visionary behind House Price Analytics, said, “The use of data analytics to reveal misinterpretations in the reporting of house prices will prove to be an invaluable tool in the great UK property-price debate. For the first time, House Price Analytics gathers all of the information and data in one place, and the findings are already astounding. House Price Analytics gives users highly interactive visualisations of the various indices to provide far greater detail about average speed of sale, transactional volumes, percentage of asking price achieved, time on the market and much more so they can make accurate and informed decisions. We are proud to launch a tool that helps the consumer obtain a more intelligent view of the property market. It’s also free and fun to use!”
Steve Neat, Roambi’s senior vice president of EMEIA, said, “When the opportunity arose to work with Richard Rawlings and the Agent Analytics team on a next-generation house price analytics application, we leapt at the chance. We are aware that the reported fluctuations in UK property prices have been an issue for some time, and through our work with Agent Analytics and the data sourced from each of the main indices, we are confident that Roambi Analytics is the perfect tool to display this information in an easy-to-use, highly digestible format. By combining all these factors, we feel that the House Price Analytics app will provide unrivalled insight into this hot-button topic.”
House Price Analytics is available to download from today at www.housepriceanalytics.com
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About House Price Analytics
House Price Analytics is an interactive resource that puts all the latest UK house price data in one place for the first time. House Price Analytics has been developed to uncover the facts behind the headlines. The application and online resource launched on 21st November 2013. The public is welcomed to download the app, free of charge at www.HousePriceAnalytics.com
For more information, please visit www.housepriceanalytics.com
About Agent Analytics
Agent Analytics launched in 2012 and is one of the fastest growing data analysis organisations, focusing on the property sector. The team includes Dr. Brad Payne, an expert in improving statistical literacy, Richard Rawlings, UK property market expert, and e-commerce entrepreneur Tim Hammond.
About Roambi
Roambi is the stunning business app that redesigns the way you experience data. Built on the belief that mobile changes everything, Roambi delivers the most engaging, interactive information to anyone – anytime, anywhere. Through constant innovation and relentless focus on user experience, Roambi transforms data to illuminate important issues and deliver key insights. People throughout the Global 500 and SMBs rely on Roambi to meet objectives and influence better decisions. Roambi connects you with the information that matters, putting the pulse of your business in the palm of your hand. The Roambi Analytics and Flow Apps are available for free from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPad mini at http://www.roambi.com/getroambi and http://www.roambi.com/getroambiflow. For more information, visit www.roambi.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
