House prices across England and Wales showed a wide gap for growth in reference to London and other areas. The Land Registry data revealed that overall there was little change during the month of May in comparison to April data. The annual growth rate dropped to the lowest level since January 2014.

The Land Registry data is unique in that it only shows properties that have changed hands and excludes new build homes.

The average house price for May reported by the Land Registry was £179,696, which is still very close to the pre-recession crisis peak reported in November 2007 of £180,990.

House prices in Wales revealed a slowdown as prices dropped by 0.6% on an annual comparison, while England saw increases ranging amoung regions between 1% and 9.1%. London experienced the highest annual growth as well as the south-east while the lowest growth levels were recorded for the north-east area of England. The highest annual growth outside of London was in Reading with house prices up 13.3%.

Increases in house prices are helping to pad the equity levels of homeowners. Some are gaining back the lost equity experienced after the onset of the recession. This is allowing homeowners to seek low level interest rate remortgages and for some it is an opportunity to get a cash equity release remortgage. The cash can then be used for lowering overall debt, paying for holiday travel, or other major expense.

For some homeowners, the equity cash release is an opportunity to help their children onto the property ladder, as it is still highly considered that parents are helping to contribute to deposits for home purchases.