Glasgow and Edinburgh lead the way in new figures showing the fastest rates of house price growth in the UK outside of London, but which other areas have fared well in 2018?
Housesimple have analysed data from the start of 2018 through to September, as recently as the figures from the Land Registry cover. England does not feature in the list’s top three, with the two Scottish cities ahead of Newport in south-east Wales, while London’s market performance warrants a separate list.
Prices for properties in Glasgow went up by 9.1% in the period covered, with an average price if £137,507. Scotland’s capital city follows its rival along the M9 with a rate of 9%, and a home selling for, on average, £264,745.
End of Severn Bridge toll boosts Newport market
Newport made a strong showing with a rise of 8.6%, fuelled by the prospect of the scrapping of tolls on the nearby Severn river bridge crossings between Wales and England. That eventually came into force on 17 December, but the months leading up to it saw savvy buyers being tempted by lower prices across the Bristol Channel and the promise of no charge for crossing the river.
House prices in Wales as a whole have performed well in 2018, with home.co.uk’s recent report showing a rise of 7.4% over the last 12 months in the Principality. Home’s average price in Wales was £206,000 but Newport currently comes in under £180,000 according to Housesimple.
The next couple of places in Housesimple’s list shows good results from areas close to other urban areas. Wolverhampton is in fourth place with a rate of 7.9%, reflecting consistent interest in Birmingham and the area due to a strong economy and long-term projects like building for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and HS2.
Salford is fifth with 7.4% growth, based on both proximity for working in Manchester and in developments like Media City, including both BBC and ITV, in Salford itself. Also featured and also close to Manchester is Stockport, where property prices have risen by 7.1% to an average of just under £227,000.
Stockport on the rise for buying or renting
The Cheshire town, well served by road, rail and air links, was second in Lendinvest’s recent Buy To Let investment list having zoomed up 18 places from the previous report. There are plans for numerous new residential developments and investment in the town centre, and the possibility of extending the Manchester Metrolink into Stockport have also been mooted.
Sam Mitchell, CEO of Housesimple, said,
“There’s been a great deal of focus on the housing market cooling off in recent months, but it might surprise some people to know that our research shows that average house prices are actually higher than they were at the start of the year in more than 80% of major UK towns and cities.
“While low stock levels rather than a healthy level of transactions will be cited as the reason that house prices remain at the level they are, that would be doing a disservice to a property market that has proved impressively robust in the face of some pretty strong economic headwinds this year.”
