Bounty

Housing market statistics will be reviewed by the Government after concerns arose that current price calculation methods are creating confusion.

The "coherence and comparability" of the house price indexes produced by the Land Registry and Communities and Local Government will be looked at by the National Statistician during the review.

House prices are measured by various indexes, Halifax and Nationwide provide one each, the Government provides two and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) carries out a poll looking at market trends. A number of other groups also track house price movements, including housing intelligence group Hometrack and property website Rightmove.

But most of the indexes record house prices at different stages of the home buying process, with these stages ranging from asking prices when a property is first put on the market, to the price paid at the completion of a sale. As a result, the prices reported by the different indexes can vary considerably, with trends picked up by some indexes lagging others by up to three months.

There are also differences in the data used to compile the different indexes, with some, such as the Land Registry's, based on property registrations, while others, including Rics, are based on responses to a survey.

Copyright Press Association 2010