Glasgow and Edinburgh top house price growth outside of London in 2018, new analysis shows
Glasgow and Edinburgh have seen house prices rise faster than any other major UK town or city in 2018, while the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea leads growth in the capital, new research shows.
The two largest cities in Scotland have both seen average house price growth of at least 9% this year while in Kensington and Chelsea prices grew by 10.1%, according to the analysis of Land Registry figures by online agent HouseSimple.
Property prices in Glasgow have increased 9.1% from £126,016 at the beginning of 2018 to £137,507 in September. Edinburgh has seen average house prices rise 9% from £242,807 to £264,745 during the same period.
Newport, in Wales, completes the top three, with house prices up on average 8.6% in 2018. The analysis report says that the city in south west Wales has seen a mini property boom since it was announced late last year that the tolls on the Severn Bridge would be scrapped this month.
Across the UK, average house prices have risen 3.6% in 2018, from £224,502 to £232,554. While, in London, despite price growth slowing across the capital in recent months, there are a number of boroughs that have still seen positive growth in 2018, with average property values in Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea up 10.1%.
In Wolverhampton prices are up 7.9%, up 7.4% in both Salford and Leicester, up 7.3% in Derby, up 7.2% in Dundee, up 7.1% in Stockport, up 6.9% in Sheffield and Peterborough, up 6.8% in Guildford, and up 6.7% in Worcester and Lincoln.
Property low growth locations across the UK include Watford, where house prices have slumped 9% since the start of 2018, and the London borough of the City of Westminster, where average prices are down 9.7% this year.
HouseSimple chief executive officer, Sam Mitchell 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 their 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.
Mitchell said that 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.
He said that they are now coming into a traditionally quiet period for property transactions, which was expected to be quieter as a result of the Brexit vote, due to take place today. Now it’s been postponed, there could be few more sellers and buyers taking the opportunity to progress and complete transactions before the New Year.