For the past 15 years the Valuation Office has prepared facts, figures and commentary on UK property trends for Government departments.

The Property Market Report is produced each Spring and Autumn by the Chief Executive’s Office of the Valuation Office. Information is provided by District Valuers covering the whole of England, Wales and Scotland and the Valuation and Lands Agency in Northern Ireland.

Together they draw up the largest property database in the United Kingdom, providing a unique source of fact and opinion. We are pleased to announce that the Spring 2000 edition of The Valuation Office Property Market Report is now available from Estates Gazette. This report contains the same level of detail as previous editions and in addition a new data series has been introduced for Scotland in the form of a residential building land index starting from Autumn 1994.

This index will now form part of all subsequent reports. Residential building land values continue to rise and, as in previous reports, Technical Forecasts Ltd have provided a revised residential building land forecast. The forecast as at Spring 2000, based on a neural network model, indicates a further rise in land values of 8% over the next six months with further increases over the next three years. Further details are included in the residential building land section of the report

Commentaries on the various market sectors prepared by valuers across the country are also included in the report. The commentaries are prepared as close to the publication date as possible but inevitably developments take place during the formatting and printing of the report, which cannot be included. For completeness, events of major significance are included in the subsequent report.