Improving the House Price Comparisons

House price comparisons now use complete months and like-for-like periods, so a part-finished year is no longer compared with a whole one.

The percentage changes on the Cheltenham house prices pages have been improved, because some of them were misleading.

Land Registry sales take two to three months to appear, so the most recent months are always incomplete. The page was comparing the latest 12 months, and the current year so far, with full periods from a year earlier, which made sales look as though they had collapsed. It now:

  • measures the latest 12 months up to the last complete month, and says which months they are (for example “12 months to June 2026”)
  • compares a year that isn’t over yet with the same months of the year before, for example January to June 2026 with January to June 2025
  • compares 2023 with the whole of 2022 using the history back to 1995, since the live data only holds part of 2022, and leaves a comparison out where there is no complete earlier period at all
  • only shows a percentage change for new build sales when there are at least 10 sales in both periods, since a handful of sales can swing the figure wildly

FAQs

Why Do Sales Still Look Lower Than a Year Ago?

  • Sales volumes have been lower in 2026 than in the same months of 2025, and early 2025 was busier than usual as buyers rushed to complete before the stamp duty changes in April 2025. The figures now compare the same months, so what remains is a genuine difference in registered sales.

Why Does the Latest Period End Before Today?

  • Because recent sales are still being registered. Using only complete months keeps each comparison fair.

Where Does the Data Come From?

  • HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.