Property prices in the north-west up 2.3% in April

Wales shows an annual price rise of 1.7% which takes the average property value to £139,385.

The ONS figures on the other hand covered the whole of the United Kingdom but used transaction data derived from the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Regulated Mortgage Survey. The estimated price is now £209,000, compared to £292,000 under the old methodology.

The report revealed that United Kingdom average house prices have increased by 8.2% in the year to April, down from 8.5% the previous month.

The 2010 National Statistician’s Review of Official House Price Statistics recommended the production of a “single definitive house price index produced by the official statistics producer community”.

A different formula is now being used to calculate prices which “is not as sensitive to extreme valued property”, meaning results are less likely to be artificially inflated by expensive properties.

The North East saw the lowest annual price growth with an increase of 0.1%, while the South West saw the most significant monthly price fall with a movement of -2.8%.

In the City of London, the average price of a house soared by a whopping 27.3pc, to £928,217. Monthly house prices fell by 1.9% since March 2016.

RoS has been producing quarterly house price statistics for Scotland for many years and, following user consultation, will continue to publish these quarterly statistics in parallel with the monthly UK HPI.

In the North East, prices nudged ahead by just 0.1 per cent.

Under the new system London showed higher annual growth than any region, with prices increasing 14.5 per cent in the year to April.

“While it is likely that price growth will slowly edge up through the rest of this year, we expect that inflation will remain below the two per cent target until well into 2017”.

“Current increased domestic economic and political uncertainties are also likely reining in housing market activity, especially as they have been magnified by the European Union membership referendum”.

The biggest annual drop was recorded in Merthyr Tydfil, where prices fell by 11.1 per cent to stand at £82,000.

Burnley in Lancashire is the cheapest place to buy a property in the United Kingdom, with the typical house costing just £73,000.

In explaining the index and its methods, the ONS said: ‘The methodology for the new index has been developed to best utilise the sources of data now available.

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of the buying agents Garrington Property Finders, believes that the new index has dispelled the widely held view that price rises would slow dramatically in the wake of April’s stamp duty hike. Additional property attribute information, including floor space, will also be considered, gleaned from the Council Tax Valuation list maintained by the Valuation Office Agency.

House prices rose an annualised 8.2% in April to an average of £209,000.

The data still lags one month behind other influential indexes from Halifax and Nationwide Building Society, which use their own mortgage data.