Land Registry Price Index: What It Shows and How to Use It

The “Land Registry price index” is the UK House Price Index (UK HPI), an official monthly measure of how residential property values change across the UK. It tells you where the market is heading nationally, regionally and locally. It does not tell you what one particular house is worth, so you still need sold prices on the same street before you make an offer.

Key points

• The UK HPI is built from completed, registered sales, so it is an official record of what homes actually sold for, not what they were advertised at.
• The August 2026 release put the UK average at £273,000, up 0.9% over the year, with big differences between nations.
• Because it waits for completions, the index lags the market by around six weeks, and recent figures get revised.
• Use it for direction and context. Use comparable sold prices, ideally from your own street, to decide what to offer.
• Asking-price and mortgage-based indices are faster but measure something different, so compare like with like.

Table of Contents

• What is the Land Registry price index?
• What do the latest UK house price index figures say?
• How does HM Land Registry calculate the index?
• Why is the index a few weeks behind the market?
• How does it compare with other house price indices?
• Which house price index sites are worth using?
• Why can’t an index tell you what one house is worth?
• How do you use the index when deciding what to offer?
• What do we think about using an index to price a home?
• Where can you see the evidence for a specific address?
• Frequently asked questions
• Sources

What is the Land Registry price index?

The UK HPI captures changes in the value of residential properties using registered sales of homes bought at market value, whether with cash or a mortgage. It gives figures for the UK as a whole, for each nation, for regions and for smaller areas such as local authorities.

The same guidance says official coverage starts in January 1995 for England and Wales, January 2004 for Scotland and January 2005 for Northern Ireland. If you want to see how prices in your area have moved over decades, that is the series to look at.

Despite the name, HM Land Registry does not produce it alone. The index is jointly produced by HM Land Registry, Land and Property Services Northern Ireland, the Office for National Statistics and Registers of Scotland, with the ONS doing the calculation. That matters if you are searching for Scottish or Northern Irish data, because the underlying records come from different registers.

What do the latest UK house price index figures say?

The August 2026 release reported a UK average price of £273,000, 0.9% higher than a year earlier and 0.3% higher than the previous month. The index value was 104.6, where January 2023 is set at 100.

The same release gives a useful spread across the nations:

Two points when you read a table like this. First, an average price is not a typical price for your street. It blends flats in city centres with farmhouses and new-builds. Second, the latest estimates are provisional, and the official release itself says so. Check the current month on GOV.UK rather than relying on a figure quoted in an article, including this one.

How does HM Land Registry calculate the index?

The method is more careful than a simple average of sale prices, which would jump around whenever a few expensive homes happened to sell in the same month.

The index uses sale prices alongside the attributes of each property in a hedonic regression. In plain terms, each home is treated as a bundle of features such as location and type. That helps separate genuine price movement from a change in the kind of homes that happened to sell.

The results are then combined using mix adjustment and weights. According to the ONS, the weights come from 12 months of the previous year’s transactions and are refreshed at the start of each year. The official guidance adds that the standard average is a geometric mean, and that below regional level the published estimate is a three-month moving average.

The index is published monthly, with Northern Ireland reported quarterly. Recent months are revised as late registrations come in, so a figure you saw last month may have shifted slightly.

Why is the index a few weeks behind the market?

The index only counts a sale when it completes and is registered. That makes it reliable but slow. GOV.UK’s own comparison puts the UK HPI at about six weeks after the reference period, compared with about one week for the lender-based indices and publication during the month for the portal asking-price index.

The delay has a practical consequence. A deal agreed today may not complete for several months, and the sale then has to be registered. The index therefore describes prices agreed some time ago. In a fast-moving market, for example when mortgage rates change quickly, the picture can be out of date by the time you read it.

There is a second caution. The August 2026 release warns that registered-sale volumes for the latest 12 months are provisional and should not be used to infer trends in total sales activity, because many completed sales have not yet been registered and processed. Price changes and sales volumes are different things, so don’t read the recent volume figures as a sign that the market has stalled.

How does it compare with other house price indices?

Most UK house price indices differ in what they measure, not just how well. Before you compare two headline numbers, check what sits underneath each.

This follows GOV.UK’s comparison of UK house price indices. It notes that lender indices rest on mortgage approvals, so cash buyers are left out, while the UK HPI covers both cash and mortgage purchases.

An asking-price index shows what sellers hope for, not what buyers pay. In a softer market the gap between the two can be wide, which is one reason sold prices matter so much when you are negotiating.

Which house price index sites are worth using?

Rather than ranking websites, choose by what you need to find out. Four checks help:

1. Is the data from completed sales? Registered-sale data is the firmest evidence. Mortgage approval and asking-price data are earlier signals but less final.
2. How granular is it? Some tools stop at national or regional level. If you are buying in a particular town, you want local authority detail at least.
3. Does it cover your nation? Land Registry sold prices cover England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are recorded by their own registers.
4. Is it adjusted for the mix of homes sold? Registers of Scotland explains that its unadjusted median and mean statistics can swing when the monthly mix of expensive and cheap sales changes, while the HPI’s geometric mean and mix adjustment give a smoother line.

For most readers the starting points are the official ones. GOV.UK hosts the monthly UK HPI releases and a free tool to search sold property prices in England and Wales, and the raw price paid data is available to download under an open licence. Between them, you can see both the market direction and the actual prices behind it.

Why can’t an index tell you what one house is worth?

An index is an average of many sales. Your target house is one sale. The two can differ a lot.

The official guidance says that estimates for smaller areas can be more volatile when there are fewer transactions, and the three-month moving average smooths this without removing it. The figures are also nominal, which means they are not adjusted for inflation.

RICS says the same thing from a valuer’s perspective. Its guidance describes indices as useful guides to aggregate trends, while an individual property can differ significantly from the general trend. It adds that comparable evidence should be recent and relevant, and that differences between properties have to be analysed.

Here is what that looks like in practice. Suppose the index shows prices in your local authority up 3% over a year. A three-bed semi on a quiet cul-de-sac might have risen more, and a one-bed flat above a shop might have risen less, or fallen. The index is the weather forecast for the region. The sold prices on your street are the temperature in the room.

It also helps to keep market value separate from other “values”. The price a willing buyer would pay is not the cost of rebuilding the property, which is what buildings insurance is concerned with. If you want to see how the two differ, this explainer on reinstatement value versus market value sets it out.

How do you use the index when deciding what to offer?

A sensible sequence uses the index first for context and sold prices last for the number.

1. Check the direction. Look at the latest UK HPI figures for your local authority. Is the annual change rising, flat or falling? This tells you how much leverage you might have.
2. Pull the sold prices. Search HM Land Registry’s sold prices for the same road and nearby streets. Look at similar property types and sizes, and favour sales from the last 6 to 12 months. Our guide to checking what homes on your street sold for walks through it.
3. Adjust for lag. If the local trend has changed since those sales, allow for it. A property that sold nine months ago in a rising market may be worth a little more now. In a falling one, a little less.
4. Compare with the asking price. If the guide price is well above what similar homes achieved, you have evidence for a lower offer. Our piece on how to tell if a house is overpriced lists seven checks.
5. Build the offer. Combine comparables, condition, time on the market and your own circumstances. The step-by-step guide to calculating an offer shows how.

One point on the sold prices themselves. The register records the price paid, but it won’t tell you the condition of the home, whether it had an extension, or whether it was sold in a hurry. That is why a few well-chosen comparables beat one big average, and why you should read the listing details of each one. For more detail, see how to find comparable sold prices for a UK property.

What do we think about using an index to price a home?

We build Offer Smart around one idea: a buyer should be able to see the evidence behind a price before they commit to it. The official index is a good piece of that evidence, and we would always point a buyer to it for the direction of the market.

But direction is not a price. Most of the questions buyers bring to us are specific: what did the house two doors down sell for, how does this asking price compare with the road, and what are the running costs and flood risk once I own it? An index cannot answer those, and it was never designed to.

So we put the local layer on top. Enter an address or paste a listing link and you get recent comparable sales, including those on the same road, with area data on crime risk, flood risk, schools and amenities beside it. It is a data-led guide to what to offer. It is not a RICS valuation, a survey or financial advice, and we do not claim exact or guaranteed valuations.

For estate agents the same thinking applies. A branded property and area guide that sets out schools, broadband, bills and council tax helps buyers and tenants see the local picture, and it gives the agent a more informed conversation at the viewing.

Rhys Hedges

Where can you see the evidence for a specific address?

If you are weighing up a particular property, a full buyer report from Offer Smart costs £19.99 as a one-off. It brings together comparable sold prices, negotiation guidance, area data and estimated running costs for the address you enter. If you are viewing several homes, the Unlimited Homebuyer Membership is £39.99 per month. You can look at a sample report first to see what it covers.

Estate and letting agents can also produce branded guides for buyers and tenants, with plans on the estate agent page.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Land Registry price index the same as the UK House Price Index?

In practice, yes. People search for “Land Registry price index” but the official name is the UK House Price Index. HM Land Registry supplies data and publishes it with the ONS, Registers of Scotland and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland, with the ONS calculating the figures.

How often is the UK HPI updated?

It is published monthly, with Northern Ireland reported quarterly. Each release covers a month roughly six weeks earlier, and recent figures can be revised as more sales are registered. Always check the release date on GOV.UK before you quote a number.

Can I use the index to value my own home?

You can use it to see how prices in your area have moved, which is helpful for context when you are thinking of selling or remortgaging. It cannot give you a value for your property. For that you need comparable sold prices, and for a formal figure, a RICS valuation.

Why do different indices show different house price changes?

They measure different things. The official index uses registered sales of cash and mortgage purchases, lender indices use their own mortgage approvals, and the portal index uses asking prices. GOV.UK sets out these differences, along with timing and weighting, which explains why headline numbers rarely match.

Sources

• About the UK House Price Index, GOV.UK
• UK House Price Index Summary: August 2026, GOV.UK
• Comparing house price indices in the UK, GOV.UK
• On the market: how the ONS measures property prices
• HPI and house price statistics comparison, Registers of Scotland
• Comparable evidence in real estate valuation, RICS
• Search sold property prices, GOV.UK
• Use land and property data, HM Land Registry

Recommended

• How Estate Agents Value Properties — And How You Can Check Their Numbers
• Sold House Prices: How to Check What Homes on Your Street Sold For
• How to Use Sold Prices and Local Property Data Before You Offer
• Buyer Property Reports | Understand a Home Before You Offer