By House price growth in 20 major cities across the UK slowed to 1.7 per cent in March 2019, according to the recent UK Cities House Price Index from Hometrack, a UK property analyst firm.
Despite the overall slowdown across UK cities, those in the north saw greater price gains than southern cities, including London. UK house prices rose by 2.5 per cent overall, according to the index.
This comes after analysts have reported on parts of the London prime property market being at their cheapest valuations since 2010.
Northern cities outpace neighbours
Liverpool was the best performer, according to Hometrack. Prices grew by 5.7 per cent in the past year. Manchester was close behind, seeing average property price rises of 5.1 per cent on an annual basis.
The strong performance was shared by midlands cities such as Birmingham – the city saw house prices gain 4.2 per cent in the past year. Across the Irish Sea, Belfast saw stronger gains, of 4.7 per cent.
Glasgow also saw strong gains where average house prices rose by as much as 5 per cent, but price gains in Edinburgh were milder, with prices rising just 2.9 per cent according to Hometrack.
London shows weakness
London house prices stayed flat in the year to March 2019, while Southampton house prices grew at a modest rate of 0.9 per cent, according to Hometrack.
Oxford was one of just two UK cities to register an overall decline annually, where prices fell by 0.6 per cent. Aberdeen saw a milder decline of 0.4 per cent annually.
The Hometrack report commented on the divergences between north and south, saying: “The cities registering the highest rate of growth at present are those where recovery in prices since 2008 has been weakest.”
The report concluded: “In addition to lower mortgage rates, the growth in house prices since 2008 has been driven by rising levels of employment and income growth. These factors have played out at different speeds across cities. Prices in some cities also received an additional boost from investor and overseas demand.”
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