The total housing market value in England and Wales was £241.2bn in the year ending March 2020, a decrease of 6.0% on the previous year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

This value was also 13.7% less than the highest level of housing market value, which was in the year ending March 2007.

In the year ending March 2020, the East of England had the highest housing market value relative to the peak in 2007 (with an index of 92.2).

stamp duty

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The North East had the lowest housing market value relative to the peak in 2007 (with an index of 70.0).

The median price paid for residential properties in lower-layer super output areas (LSOAs) in England ranged from £25,500 (County of Durham) to £5.3m (Westminster) in the year ending March 2020.

The median price paid for residential properties in Wales ranged from £46,000 (Rhondda Cynon Taf) to £600,000 (Cardiff) in the same period.

There were more LSOAs in which the median price paid was £1m or more in the year ending March 2020 than in the previous year (357, up from 335).

Out of this 357 LSOAs, 296 were in London, representing 6.1% of London’s LSOAs.

The percentage of LSOAs with an increase in median price paid has dropped compared with the previous year, with a decrease of 2.7 percentage points since the year ending March 2019.

This is the third consecutive annual decrease, but the number of LSOAs that saw an increase in their median price paid for residential properties in comparison with the previous year remained notably higher than the year ending March 2009, following the economic downturn.

The total value of residential property transactions (unadjusted for inflation) decreased most in the East Midlands out of all regions (-8.1%) in the year ending March 2020.

England’s median price paid for residential properties increased in 55.0% of lower-layer super output areas (LSOAs); in Wales this increased in 63.3% of LSOAs.

The number of residential property sales in England fell by 8.0% to 752,242 and in Wales fell by 7.2% to 43,667; there was an overall decrease of 69,110 residential property sales in England and Wales on the previous year.

Flats and maisonettes were the largest contributors to this decrease, falling by more than any other property type in both England and Wales (15.8% and 15.1% respectively).

For all residential property types in all regions, the number of transactions in the year ending March 2020 was higher than 11 years ago, following the economic downturn. However, this number has not yet returned to the levels seen before the economic downturn.