Last year, house prices in the UK climbed by a modest 2.7%, according to research by Halifax, but the picture couldn’t be more different in the south-west of England.
As house price growth stuttered towards the end of 2017, the Gloucestershire spa town of Cheltenham came out on top with a huge 13% leap in house prices over the course of 2017 – almost five times the national average.
This meant average house prices in the town increased by £36,033 last year, bringing the strongest market away from the capital, as many experts predicted. According to Office for National Statistics data that was released last year, the Cotswold District Council area in Gloucestershire saw house prices soar by a reported 16.2% on average.
Halifax results put the south-west coastal town of Bournemouth in second place with an average house price rise of 11.7%, followed by Brighton with 11.4%.
Spreading the wealth
Areas of London featured lower down the top-20 list, with Newham the capital’s best performer in fifth place with a 10.2% increase, and then Redbridge in 15th position with 7.7% – the same percentage rise also seen by Barnet in the capital.
Halifax’s managing director Russell Galley said: “Unlike last year, the top performers are not exclusive to London and the South East, with the top spot now belonging to Cheltenham in the south-west, and towns in East Anglia, East Midlands, north-west, Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber also making the list.”
At the bottom of the list, Perth in Scotland saw house prices drop by 5.3%, while Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands suffered a fall of 4% and Paisley, another Scottish town, had a 3.6% decline.
