The problem with looking at ‘averages’ at a high level is that property prices are so diverse from one street to the next, they are unlikely to make any sense to people locally. As such we look at data by town and city to gauge what variations there are across the country.
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Year on year prices changes at town and city level vary from 1.6% to 16.3%
Property prices in Liverpool and Bradford remain at -26% and -25% below market the height of 2007/8, respectively.
Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Leeds prices are between -20% and -16% down on the previous market high, although Newcastle upon Tyne achieved good YoY growth of 6.6%, it still has a way to go to recover to pre-credit crunch levels.
Nottingham, Birmingham and Peterborough prices are down by -15%, -14% and -13% respectively on the 2007/08 height. These are closely followed by Sheffield and Leicester, whose prices are -12% and -10% down on the market high. Both Peterborough and Nottingham have experienced good year on year growth of 9% and 7.7%, although the Nottingham data is skewed by the sale of higher priced new builds.
Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth are down between -6% and -5% on the market high of 2007/08, with Cardiff and Norfolk now only -4% down on the market height. Cardiff has reached 7.9% YoY growth, so looks like 2015 may bring prices back to what they were six years ago.
Milton Keynes has now reached the market height of 2007/08, and experienced strong growth of 11.3%, year on year.
Cambridgeshire, Reading and Bristol prices exceed the 2007/8 high by between 4% and 5%, and achieved strong year on year growth of 11.1% and 11.6%, what will be interesting is if this growth is sustained into 2015, or, like London, affordability issues will cause prices to drop back further.
Prices in Oxfordshire and Brighton and Hove are now 11% and 16% above the height of the market, respectively, together with continued strong growth of 11% and 12.5%, YoY.
London prices have steadied recently, but remain 32% above the market high and YoY growth of 16.3%.
Prices in all towns remain abovetheir market lows.
Download my full report for February 2015
Kate Faulkner’s Market Commentary:
“Wow what a dramatic and historic change in property price performance. Up until September 2014, property price recovery, post a recession, was set to soar and in half of the London Boroughs it did. Property prices increased by up to 30% or more. However, these increases, for the first time haven’t rippled out to all of London. Some Boroughs only grew by 11-15% year on year, and many now look like, although they will increase in 2015, it will be at a much lower rate than the long term annual average and some may even see year on year falls. This impacts severely on the regions too. Normally within a few years of London prices increasing, so the rest of the country enjoys double digit growth, but it looks like this won’t happen now. And this has a dramatic impact on many cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham – many won’t see their properties rise beyond the price they bought them for, meaning hundreds of thousands of homeowners, for the first time ever, could end up living in negative equity for years.”
Download my full report for February 2015
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