Property Finance News:- Glasgow posted the strongest year-on-year growth in prices for April increasing by 5.1 per cent to £125,200, according to Zoopla’s UK cities house price index.
Leicester and Liverpool commanded joint second place with the growth of 4.9 per cent bringing average prices to £177,600 and £122,200 respectively. Manchester and Nottingham were the joint third with 4.5 per cent growth and averages of £169,700 and £154,600.
UK city house price growth is running at +1.7 per cent down slightly on the level of growth 12 months ago at 1.9 per cent.
Finance broker Hank Zarihs Associates said price growth in the north was mirrored by SMEs developers’ keen interest in construction loans and property development loans for schemes outside London.
Growth ranges narrow
Annual growth ranges from a high of 5.1 per cent in Glasgow to -0.5 per cent in London – the smallest spread in annual growth recorded across the 20 cities since 1996.
Zoopla said the recent narrowing between the highest and lowest rate of growth is down to a slowing in the rate of price falls in Aberdeen. These have recently turned positive at +0.3 per cent, alongside a general slowdown in price inflation across all cities, matching the national trend.
Cities in the South follow London’s trend
House price growth was higher than a year ago in eight cities including Aberdeen and Cambridge. The deceleration in price growth has been most marked in southern England with Bristol, Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Southampton all registering price inflation at or below 2.5 per cent.
London has the slowest growth since 2012
In 2014, London was the fastest growing city with prices rising at an annual rate of 18 per cent. There was a further increase in growth three years ago, as demand grew as investors rushed to beat the stamp duty changes introduced in April 2016. Since then, the rate of price growth has slowed to 5.1 per cent. The last time the fastest growing city was at this level was in London seven years ago, at the end of 2012, just as the house price growth started to accelerate.
Property Finance – Asking price discounts rise
Zoopla said discounts between asking and achieved prices were starting to increase off a low base across almost all cities except for Leicester.
Outside Scotland, 11 cities have discounts below the national average of 3.9 per cent. The house price index is powered by Hometrack and analyses 20 cities across the UK.