The most recent house price index published by Your Move reveals that the Midlands is leading the way with property values showing growth month on month.
Property prices in both the West Midlands and East Midlands are displaying a positive trend, with growth of 3.1% and 2.8% respectively. In the West Midlands, the average property value is now at a new high of £206,671. To the east, Leicester put in a strong performance with growth of 3.8%.
House prices in the West Midlands were also tipped to perform well with a growth rate of 19.3% in Savills’ recent Residential Property Forecast. With the city hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and an enormous infrastructure project in HS2 getting under way, there’s a promising time ahead for Birmingham and the area.
October revealed an increase of 0.4% across England and Wales, which represents the first increase since February of this year and sees the average property price clock in at £304,433.
To date, year on year national average property values have slowed showing a slight decrease in growth of just 1%. However, monthly data for October indicates that despite estimated sales for October 2018 suggesting a 6% drop-off compared with 12 months ago, they are 2% higher than in October 2016.
Most regions across England and Wales continue to show growth.
The East of England is holding up with a 2.8% growth, and individual cities have had a boost in property prices with Wales registering increases in Newport up 7.2% and Cardiff up 4%. In the South West, Bristol was up 3%.
Positive economic drivers continue to underpin property price growth
Whilst the rate of inflation at 2.2% is running considerably higher than the overall yearly growth in house prices, other significant economic drivers that underpin a healthy growth in property prices continue.
For instance, the average weekly wage has increased annually by 2.4 per cent, employment numbers are high, availability of mortgage options remains favourable and the cost of borrowing is still low.
