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About Us

House Price Data Since 2005

Annual % Change in Average House Prices

Acadata Ltd is an independent research-based consultancy, focused on the UK housing market. Dr Stephen Satchell, Economics Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge has provided oversight of  our work for some 23 years.

Our link with top-flight academic input was the foundation-stone for the business, and continuing investment in research remains the fundamental characteristic of Acadata’s practice.

Acadata concentrates on house price indices and data- and the way that these can best be researched, analysed and published for our clients- and our partner MIAC Acadametrics handles risk work.

“Our link with top flight academic input was the foundation stone for our business and our continuing investment in research remains the fundamental attribute of our practice.”

Our People

Below are our core personnel, all of whom have many years relevant experience:

John Tindale (BSc Southampton, MBA London Business School)

John read Economics at University before taking an MBA at London Business School. Specialising in finance and accounting, he first worked for both multi-nationals and single-owner enterprises in the shipping industry.

He was asked to act as Financial Controller for the then ailing specialised engineering division of Haden plc before becoming Finance Director of a number of specialist sub-contractors operating in the HVAC sector of the construction industry.

At Acadata, John leads the analytics behind the monthly LSL Acadata HPIs.

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Richard Sumner

Richard leads our client support and is responsible for business development. In addtion to the continuing contribution which he makes to our index News Releases, Richard advises our technical team how best to develop our data to meet market requirements.

After studying mathematics, statistics and computing, Richard worked with major US and UK IT companies in marketing roles.

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Barbara Cotton

Barbara provides us with her knowledge of programming, systems analysis and customer interface, gained over more than 30 years.

She has oversight of our quality assurance procedures, problem solving and document production and plays a crucial role in the preparation of our monthly documentation for the LSL Acadata HPIs. She also maintains the Acadata website.

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Dr Peter Williams

Dr Peter Williams is our Chairman and is also Director, Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research and Executive Director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders’ Association.

He was for ten years Deputy Director General of the Council of Mortgage Lenders. As past Professor of Housing Management at the University of Wales, Peter is a strong advocate for research and brings this enthusiasm and his own academic background to Acadata.

He is a senior industry figure, well known in government, academia and in the lending industry, with very wide experience across the whole housing sector. He served on the Board of The Housing Corporation from 1995 to 2002.

Peter can be contacted here

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Dr Stephen Satchell

Steve is Economics Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge, an Honorary Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London and is an Adjunct Professor at UTS, Sydney. He was The Reader in Financial Econometrics at the University of Cambridge until 2011 and is an Honorary Member of the Institute of Actuaries.

Steve maintains his interest in house price indices and will continue to assist Acadata when Acadata is advising on the preparation of indices for overseas countries.

View Dr Steve Satchell’s CV

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David Thorpe (BA Oxon)

David trained as an engineer but has worked in a number of sectors. He was responsible for the launch of what was the FTHPI, now LSL Acadata HPI, and is the owner of Acadata.

David can be contacted at david.thorpe@acadata.co.uk

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Bob Pannell

Bob Pannell is a professional economist with a long-standing interest in the interactions between personal finance, housing market and the wider economy.

Much of Bob’s professional life – 26 years – was spent with the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), where for many years he was the Chief Economist.  During that time, Bob led on the CML’s commentary and analysis of the UK housing and mortgage markets, wrote numerous articles for publication, initiated key data initiatives, supported policy development and PR activities, and represented the mortgage industry with government departments and regulators.

Bob has also held numerous other economist roles across the public and private sectors.

Bob now works as an independent economic consultant.

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Who We Work With

We work with organisations such as The Bank of England, Treasury, major institutions, investment funds, builders, property agents and more. Also with companies big and small for whom a detailed, accurate and completely independent picture of the what is happening in the UK property market is important, thus assisting the making of better fact-based decisions.

An overview of the major HPIs:

For the first view of the “average price paid for houses”: Rightmove’s asking prices indicate sellers’ mood- but very early release means some current data lost. e.surv Acadata “forecast” provides detailed commentary, price trends  and the first published transaction estimates.

For the “price of the average house”: Nationwide for first signals- but early release misses some current data; plus long historic data series. Halifax for complete month data and long historic mortgage valuation data series

For later but largely accurate views of the “average price paid for houses”: ONS has the biggest mortgage data sample and a hedonic regression methodology providing property and buyer characteristic data, but lacks cash sales. e.surv Acadata “final” is close to “ultimate” for use by economists, market research & property management