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This Northern powerhouse is enjoying a property price boom

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
28/04/2017

Manchester is the city with the fastest-growing house prices in the UK, recording an annual growth rate of 8.8%, according to an index.

It’s followed by Birmingham at 8% and then Bristol (7.3%), as all three cities experience levels of house price increases not seen for 12 years, according to Hometrack’s UK Cities House Price Index.

Lower growth

In contrast, house price inflation in London continues to slow and has now reached 4.9% year-on-year, which means the capital is among the five slowest-growing cities, along with Oxford and Cambridge.

This is the lowest rate of house price growth recorded in London for five years as affordability pressures impact demand for housing.

The national figures look more robust, buoyed by the Midlands and the North. Hometrack said that buyers shrugged off fears of Brexit and took advantage of record low mortgage rates in the first quarter of 2017 to buy homes in larger regional cities where affordability is still attractive.

City level house prices grew 3.5% as a result, the highest quarterly rate of price inflation for three years. This pushed the annual rate of property price growth across UK cities to 6.4%.

Richard Donnell, insight director at the firm, said: “Buyers outside the south of England appear to be shrugging off concerns over Brexit and a squeeze on real incomes to take advantage of low mortgage rates.

“This is shifting the dynamics of the housing market. Cities that have been driving house price growth over the last two to three years, such as London and Cambridge, are now seeing a significant slowdown, while large regional cities continue to register robust and sustained levels of house price growth.”