Birmingham and Manchester see property prices boom by more than 15% since EU referendum
- 10 of the UK’s largest cities have seen double digit growth since June 2016
- But marked slowdown in southern cities like London, Oxford and Cambridge
- In December, city house prices growth stood at 2.7%
Brexit and stretched affordability may have helped cool the housing market in London and the South, but half of the UK’s biggest cities have seen double digit growth since the EU referendum, new data shows.
Birmingham and Manchester have seen prices rise by 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively since June 2016, with another eight cities – mostly in the North – have also seen growth beyond 10 per cent in the same period.
That’s in contrast with a marked slowdown in southern cities like London, Oxford and Cambridge, which witnessed strong growth in the aftermath of the recession but have seen price growth slow or turn into reverse since the Brexit vote.
Birmingham saw the biggest price rise of 16% since the Brexit referendum
Prices in Cambridge have fallen by four per cent since the summer of 2016, in Aberdeen by 14 per cent, while Oxford and London have seen prices rise by just two per cent and one per cent respectively, according to the latest data by Zoopla and Hometrack.
Conversely, Leicester average property prices rose 15 per cent, Nottingham and Edinburgh 14 per cent, Cardiff and Leeds 12 per cent.
‘As the debate around Brexit intensifies there has been renewed focus on what this means for the housing market,’ says the report.
‘It is clear from the transactional data that households are continuing to buy property at a steady rate and the impetus for growth in both activity and prices is focused in regional housing markets.’
Reversal of fortunes: Northern cities have seen prices grow since 2016 while Southern cities have seen price growth either decline or turn negative
Overall price growth across the UK’s 20 biggest cities has slowed down in recent years, with average property prices rising by 2.7 per cent to £252,600 in December.
This is half the annual growth rate over the last five years, which stands at six per cent.
But slower headline growth is largely a result of material slowdown in London and other cities in Southern England, Zoopla said.
In contrast, Edinburgh saw the fastest annual growth at 6.8 per cent in December, followed by Liverpool at 6.3 per cent and Birmingham, Nottingham and Cardiff, which all saw price growth of 5.9 per cent.
Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Zoopla, said: ‘Weaker growth in London, Cambridge and Aberdeen has been a large drag on the headline rate of house price growth across the UK cities index over the last year.
‘House prices in London have been falling for almost 12 months while the rate of growth has slowed across cities in southern England, a result of growing affordability pressures, higher transaction costs and increased uncertainty.
Prices in Manchester rose 5.8 per cent in December and are up 15 per cent since Brexit vote
‘The strongest performing cities are outside south eastern England where affordability remains attractive and employment levels are rising.’
He said London’s decline will continue, expecting prices to fall two per cent in 2019, and especially in central parts of the capital where prices have grown most over the last decade but where prices are currently down four per cent.
‘Prices continue to increase slowly in the more affordable outer and commuter areas of London,’ Donnell added.
