Sluggish house price growth in London while Manchester and Edinburgh soar
London house price growth has fallen to a nine-year low, according to new figures out today.
Growth in the capital’s flagging property market fell to a year-on-year low of 0.4 per cent in May, while Edinburgh and Manchester house prices soared to 7.1 per cent and 7.0 per cent respectively.
The latest data from property analyst group Hometrack also shows that prices fell in 43 per cent of London local authority areas, with Canada having the biggest falls in house prices out of anywhere in the capital.
House prices in the London’s financial district were 3.2 per cent lower last month than the previous May of 2017, compared with a 2.8 per cent like-for-like drop in April, with an average property in the Square Mile now costing £770,000.
London is one of five cities including Cambridge, Oxford, Belfast and Aberdeen, where house prices are falling in real terms as growth remains below the current rate of consumer price inflation.
| Top 10 cities with biggest year-on-year house price growth |
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1. Edinburgh – 7.1 per cent 2. Manchester – 7.1 per cent 3. Bournemouth – 6.6 per cent 4. Birmingham – 6.5 per cent 5. Nottingham – 6.5 per cent 6. Liverpool – 5.9 per cent 7. Leicester – 5.7 per cent 8. Cardiff – 5.5 per cent 9. Portsmouth – 5.4 per cent 10. Sheffield – 5.2 per cent |
Richard Donnell, insight director at Hometrack, said: “We expect house prices to keep rising across regional cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh over the next two to three years. During this time house price growth in London will remain flat with annual price rises of approximately 0-2 per cent.”
Donnell added: “As a result, the gap between house prices in cities outside of the South East and house prices in London will continue to contract.”
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Mark Readings, founder and managing director of online estate agency House Network, said: “The market remains modest and slow, with the majority of buyers still on the fence, despite an uplift in supply.”
Readings added: “Despite it being the lowest level of growth in London for nine years, prices in the capital are still more than 50 per cent above their 2007 peak, and we expect to see recovery in prices as political uncertainty fades.”