Two new indexes have been launched over the past few weeks. First a new UK Cities House Price Index by Hometrack, then an Ability to Buy Index by Hamptons International.

The wealth of data now available is allowing companies to create new ideas for indexes that set them apart from the standard 'house price index' produced by the likes of Nationwide, Halifax and Rightmove.

20 Cities Index
Hometrack's new index, which now confines itself to looking at average house prices in 20 cities in the UK rather than all of England and Wales, will not be using the same data, (provided by around 3,000 agency offices), that it used for its old monthly house price index.

The firm reports: 'This new (Index) is very different to our historic monthly housing survey which was an aggregation of the views of a large sample of agents and surveyors on key market trends in their local area. The survey has been dis-continued.'

The new index has been two years in the making and Hometrack says that advancements in data availability and collection mean it is now able to analyse trends based on real data rather than surveys allowing it to drill down to a more localised level.