Suchergebnisse

This survey updates an earlier one made in 1980 (published in 1981). It provides a comprehensive review of the sources and nature of all statistics on house prices in the United Kingdom, paying particular attention to major developments that have occurred in the period since 1980. An appraisal of each source is made in the context of the problems involved in measuring price levels and price movements on a representative and comparable basis. Comparisons are made of the evidence provided by the various sources. In a concluding section guidance is offered on the choice of series for particular uses and desirable improvements are considered.

A survey is made of all official and unofficial sources of statistics on house prices in the UK. This is followed by a critical appraisal of the evidence they provide about national and regional price levels and about house price inflation. Attention is focused on two crucial factors: the representativeness of the data and the heterogeneity of houses. It is concluded that incomplete coverage of all house transactions means that most series tend to overstate price levels and that intertemporal and interregional comparisons are sensitive to the composition by type of houses traded.