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A Pandemic in England’s House Prices

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About the map

England saw a record high in the average house price in 2022. However, this increase is not the byproduct of linear growth from previous years nor is it consistent across all areas of the country. 

These maps explore the change in house prices by local authority district; before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic from 2019 – 2022.

Why it works

The colour scale effectively contrasts the difference between an increase in price, depicted in yellow, and a decrease in price, shown in blue.

To better represent the location of houses and their prices, the maps display the inhabited areas of the country which are then colour coded by price increase for the authority district they fall within.

The interactivity of the app enables the user to search locations on the map or use the table to view the data in a qualitative format.

Important Steps

  • 1.

    Download Government house price data for the entirety of UK and load it into ArcGIS Pro. Use the Join function to attach it to ONS shapefile of the local authority districts of England, removing the districts for Scotland and Wales.

  • 2.

    Select a graduated colour symbology with manually set breaks in the data and create a bipartite colour scheme with blue at the lowest value and yellow at the highest.

  • 3.

    Use the Share function to export the created layers from ArcGIS Pro to ArcGIS Online.

  • 4.

    In ArcGIS Online add the ONS data layer of Built Up Areas and use the Destination In Blend function to mask the house prices layer.

  • 5.

    Use ArcGIS Experience Builder to create an app with a section for each map year and a second page displaying all four maps simultaneously. Link the four maps using Triggers.

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Requirements

  • Data and software

    The house price data was obtained from HM Land Registry’s yearly House Price Index (UK House Price Index: reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Excel was used to format the data which was then loaded in ArcGIS Pro and finally ArcGIS Online. 

  • Analysis

    The House Price data was only available in .csv format and had to be Joined in ArcGIS Pro to ONS shapefile of the authority districts to create the polygons for the areas. Prior to this, Excel was required to ensure the authority names in the House Price data exactly matched those in the ONS shapefile.

  • Time

    The time processing the data in Excel was streamlined by using the Conditional Formatting tool. Using ArcGIS Pro to join the data and then select an appropriate symbology with manually set breaks was quick. The process of building the app in Experience Builder was the lengthiest.

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Tips and tricks

  • Adjust Your Symbology Settings

    When working with negative and positive data, choose a symbology that accurately reflects this.

  • Refine The Visual Focus

    Explore other datasets on ArcGIS Online that could be blended with your data to give a more accurate representation of your message.

  • Let Users Explore Multiple Maps

    Sync your maps together in Experience Builder by setting Triggers between maps.

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Links & Resources

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Helena Horlick, Graduate

Map Author

Helena Horlick

Helena is a Graduate Consultant at Esri UK .

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