Recent data and analysis has revealed that UK city house prices have seen an uplift of 4.9% over the last year.
According to Hometrack, the strongest growth has been observed in cities, whilst the South coast is home to weakest levels.
Seeing the highest annual increase was Manchester, driving growth at 7.7% year on year. This was followed by Leicester which grew by 7.4% and Edinburgh at 7.2%.
At the other end of the scale was Aberdeen, seeing prices fall by 7.2%; this was the only city in the index to see an annual decline in property prices.
Last year’s figure than the average price growth observed over the last two years of 4.2%. It was, however, below the five year average of 6.9%.
The city seeing the most significant growth over the last half a decade was Bristol at 8.9%, though this has slowed over the last 12 months to 4.9%.
Commenting on the figures was founder and CEO of Emoov, Russell Quirk. He said: “The latest index from Hometrack highlights the transitional phase that much of the UK property market is currently undergoing, as sellers continue to adjust their asking price in order to secure a sale in a slower market.
“This is most prevalent across the southern, more inflated cities and nowhere more so than the capital, where there is almost an arrogance and an expectation that a seller should achieve more than the market is dictating simply because of their geographical location. Therefore, the adjustment in price is taking far longer and so transaction levels and in turn, house price growth, are slowing.
“When you move outside of this bubble and observe cities with a more affordable offering, the margin between expectation and current market climate is far smaller. As a result, this bravado on the part of the seller is non-existent and the market is moving a lot quicker and with more confidence, resulting in stronger house price growth.”
