The volume of housing sales fell sharply in 2008 and 2009. Since then the numbers of properties being sold has increased steadily, buoyed in recent years by increasing amounts of new house building.
In 2016/17 there were 355 affordable homes completed through planning, and 1,603 private homes. Combined, house completions increased 1% compared to the previous year, and remain at considerably higher levels than the longer-term average.
47% of dwellings and 17% of employment floorspace were completed on previously developed, or brownfield, land, which misses the target of 65% for dwellings and the target of 40% for employment floorspace. However, of the greenfield dwelling completions, 90% of these were on allocated housing land, and the majority of the employment completions were at the greenfield allocations of Normanton Industrial Estate Extension and the land at Trinity Farm, Knottingley development (TK MAXX).
The Local Development Framework (LDF) Annual Monitoring Reports provide detailed information about housing and commercial building development over the past year.
Affordability (to buy)
In the 12 months to the end of June 2016, the median house price was £134,995, representing an annual price increase of 6%. The lower quartile house price was £100,000, representing an annual price increase of 4%.
In 2002, the median house price was 3.3-times the median gross earnings of people working full-time but by 2005 the ratio had risen to 5.3-times (based on workplace earnings). Since then, the median price/earnings ratio has remained fairly constant, while affordability across England has worsened slightly. The lower quartile price/earnings ratio has fluctuated more, but the current ratio is slightly lower than in 2005 and is in a better position than the ratio across England as a whole, which has worsened.
Other resources
- Number of residential property sales (table) : (map) (updated quarterly)
- Number of residential property sales (existing dwellings) (table) : (map) (updated quarterly)
- Number of residential property sales (newly built dwellings) (table) : (map) (updated quarterly)
- LGA Research Summary Report- Areas showing greatest signs on new housing developments (updated quarterly)
- Map of median house price, by MSOA (updated quarterly)
- Map of lower quartile house price, by MSOA (updated quarterly)
- Map of median house price (newly built dwellings), by MSOA (updated quarterly)
- Map of lower quartile house price (newly built dwellings), by MSOA (updated quarterly)
- Wakefield Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA)
- HM Land Registry searchable price paid dataset.
- Annual Monitoring Report of the Local Plan (also known as the Local Development Framework)
