Housing data sources

Plain English Data uses publicly available data from HM Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics to help people understand house prices and housing affordability in their area. All data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

This page explains where our data comes from, how we process it, and what it does and doesn't tell you.

We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to HM Land Registry, the ONS, or any government department. This is an independent project that uses publicly available open data.

House prices

What we show

The average price paid for residential property in each local authority area in England and Wales, updated monthly. You can filter by property type (detached, semi-detached, terraced, or flat) and compare your area to the England average.

Where the data comes from

The data comes from the UK House Price Index (UK HPI), published monthly by HM Land Registry. The UK HPI is based on completed residential property transactions registered with HM Land Registry. It uses a mix-adjusted methodology to account for the fact that the types of property sold vary from month to month.

Data is published monthly, typically around six weeks after the reference month. We update our data within a week of each publication.

Source: HM Land Registry — UK House Price Index

What's included

We show data for:

Local authority districts: The 300+ local authority districts, metropolitan boroughs, and London boroughs in England and Wales.
English regions: The nine statistical regions of England (e.g. South East, North West).
England and Wales: The national average for comparison.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate house price indices and are not included on this site.

Property types

The "All types" view shows the overall average for all residential transactions. You can also filter by:

Detached: Free-standing houses not attached to other properties.
Semi-detached: Houses sharing one wall with a neighbour.
Terraced: Houses sharing two walls with neighbours.
Flat/maisonette: Flats and maisonettes of all types.

What the data doesn't tell you

It's based on completed sales, not asking prices. The data reflects the prices actually paid for properties that completed their purchase in a given month. It doesn't capture current asking prices or properties currently on the market.
There's typically a 6–8 week lag. Because it takes time for transactions to be registered, the most recent data is usually from about six to eight weeks ago. For example, January data is typically published in mid-March.
Low transaction volumes make local data volatile. In smaller areas, a month with an unusually high number of expensive property sales can dramatically change the average. Areas with fewer than 100 transactions per month should be interpreted with caution.
It doesn't capture rental prices. The UK HPI only covers purchase transactions, not the rental market.
New-builds are included but can distort averages. New-build prices tend to be higher than existing properties in the same area. Some months see a higher proportion of new-build sales, which can push the average up.

Housing affordability

What we show

The affordability ratio: how many years of median gross earnings it would take to buy an average home in each area. A higher ratio means homes are less affordable relative to local salaries.

We show this for both all buyers and first-time buyers separately, since first-time buyers typically buy smaller, cheaper properties.

How the ratio is calculated

The affordability ratio is calculated as:

Average house price ÷ Median annual gross earnings = Affordability ratio

For example, if the average home costs £250,000 and the median annual salary is £30,000, the affordability ratio is 8.3× — meaning it would take 8.3 years of median earnings to buy an average home.

This is the same methodology used by the ONS in their own affordability statistics.

Where the earnings data comes from

Earnings data comes from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) Table 8, published annually by the ONS. ASHE is the most comprehensive source of earnings data in the UK, covering approximately 1% of employee jobs and weighted to be representative of the workforce.

We use the median (not mean) annual gross pay for full-time employees by place of residence. Using place of residence rather than place of work better reflects the local population's ability to buy in that area.

ASHE data is published once a year, typically in October for the previous tax year (April to April). Because of this annual cadence, affordability ratios are updated once a year rather than monthly.

Source: ONS — ASHE Table 8: Place of residence by local authority

What the data doesn't tell you

The ratio doesn't account for mortgage rates or deposits. A ratio of 8× means it would take 8 years of total salary to buy a home outright — but in practice, people take out mortgages. When interest rates are high, the same ratio is much harder to manage than when rates are low. The ratio is a useful long-term comparison but doesn't capture affordability in the context of current mortgage conditions.
It uses averages, not household incomes. Most homes are bought by couples or households with multiple incomes. The ratio compares an individual's median salary to the average house price, so the practical affordability for a two-income household is roughly double what the ratio suggests.
Some small areas have suppressed earnings data. Where sample sizes are too small to publish reliably, the ONS suppresses the earnings figure. For these areas, we cannot calculate an affordability ratio and show a gap in the data.
First-time buyer prices use a different house price series. First-time buyer affordability uses the UK HPI's dedicated first-time buyer price series, which covers properties typically bought by first-time buyers and tends to be lower than the overall average.

Licensing

All housing data used on this site is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL).

Under the OGL, we are free to copy, adapt, and republish this data, including for commercial purposes, provided we acknowledge the source.

Link: Open Government Licence v3.0

Questions or corrections

If you believe any data on this site is being displayed incorrectly, or if you have questions about our methodology, please get in touch.