Why sold prices take months to appear
If you are waiting to see what a house on your street sold for, you may find it is not listed yet, even though the buyers have moved in. That is normal. Sold prices only appear once the sale has been registered with HM Land Registry, and that takes time.
This guide explains each step between completion and publication, why the newest month always looks thin, and how to read recent figures without being misled.
From agreed sale to completion
A sale usually starts with an offer being accepted. That is not the sale price on record. Contracts are then exchanged, and the sale completes when the money is paid and the keys are handed over. This process often takes several months.
The price on record is the price on the transfer deed at completion. If the price was renegotiated after a survey, the lower figure is the one recorded. So a sold price reflects the market as it was when the deal was struck, often some months before it appears in the data.
From completion to registration
After completion, the buyer's conveyancer sends an application to HM Land Registry to register the new owner. The registry checks the paperwork and updates the title. Only once the application has been lodged can the sale go into Price Paid Data.
The gap between completion and the sale reaching the data is usually somewhere between two weeks and two months. Most sales are registered within two to eight weeks. A few take longer, for example where there is a query on the paperwork, or where a new build estate is registered in batches.
The data then records the sale against its completion date, not the date it was registered. So when a late sale arrives, it is added to the month it completed in, and that month's figures fill in further.
Checklist
- Allow two to eight weeks after completion for a sale to be registered
- New data is published once a month
- Treat the latest month as incomplete
- Earlier figures can be corrected in later releases
- Compare periods once both are close to complete
The monthly release
HM Land Registry publishes new Price Paid Data once a month, around the 20th working day. Each release adds the sales lodged during the previous month. It also corrects or removes some earlier records, so a figure can change slightly after it first appears.
This means the delay you see is a mix of three things: the time to complete, the time to register, and the wait for the next monthly release.
Why the latest month always looks thin
Because sales arrive over several weeks, the newest month in the data is never complete when it is first published. Some sales from that month will only arrive in the next release, or the one after. The two most recent months are always still filling in.
As an example, if a postcode usually has around 40 sales a month, the newest month might first show only 15, then 30 a month later, then close to 40. The figures here are only for illustration. A low count for the latest month does not mean the market has stopped.
This is why House Price Monitor reports on the latest month that is close to complete, and says which month that is. You can read more about this on the about page.
What this means for reading prices
Do not read too much into the most recent month on its own. A handful of sales can pull a figure up or down until the rest arrive. Compare like with like, such as the same three months this year and last year, once both are close to complete.
Remember too that every sold price reflects a deal agreed weeks or months before it was published. If the market is moving quickly, sold prices will catch up with it later. Our guide to working out house price change shows how to compare periods fairly.
Other sources and the delay
Asking prices on property portals appear straight away, but they are what sellers hope to get, not what buyers paid. Our guide to asking prices and sold prices explains the difference.
The UK House Price Index, published monthly by HM Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics, is also based on registered sales. It is mix-adjusted, which means it allows for changes in the types of homes sold each month. It has the same registration delay and its latest figures are revised as more sales come in.
Prices for your postcode
House Price Monitor checks for new HM Land Registry data every day and updates when each monthly release comes out. The postcode and street pages are free to read on the postcodes page.
The full monthly report for a postcode district lists every newly registered sale, with its address, price and date. It costs £4.99 a month and the first report is free when you sign up. See pricing.
Other guides
How to find what a house sold for
How to work out how much house prices have changed
What the Land Registry price data includes