The East Midlands and Wales saw the fastest house price growth last year in the UK, while London the lowest as trends in the housing market continue to reverse.
House prices in East Midlands and Wales rose 8 per cent last year, which in cash terms means an increase of nearly £14,000 in the first region and over £12,000 in the latter, according to the latest figures by Halifax and IHS Markit.
On the contrary, prices in the UK capital rose by just 1 per cent, the slowest annual rise since 2011 and the lowest growth in England.
Regional differences: Wales and the East Midlands saw the fastest house price growth in 2017
Only Scotland, which saw a 0.2 per cent decline, and Northern Ireland, where prices fell 5.6 per cent, performed worse than London in 2017 as a whole.
Overall, UK house prices increased by 3.3 per cent, or just over £7,000, during 2017.
Earlier this week, the Halifax said that prices across the UK as a whole rose by 2.7 per cent in the year to December 2017, less than half the growth rate of 2016.
The data adds to a divided picture of the property market in the UK, where the previously red hot London and South East markets have dramatically slowed down – and even started to see prices fall – while regions which were more affordable are seeing more robust price growth.
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‘The regional breakdown of Halifax HPI data shows that areas with lower house price earnings ratios and improving labour markets continue to outperform the national picture,’ said Tim Moore, associate director at IHS Markit.
Reflecting this, the East Midlands and Wales saw the strongest house price gains in 2017, closely followed by the West Midlands, where prices rose by 5 per cent and the South West with a 4.9 per cent increase.
The reversing trend is not surprising, considering that London and the South East have seen by far the greatest rises in property prices since the financial crisis.
House prices in London are now 45 per cent higher than they were ten years ago, while in the South East they are 32 per cent higher than a decade ago.
Looking at quarterly data, average UK house prices ended the year with a quarterly increase of 1.5 per cent compared to the previous three months.
Scotland and Wales saw the fastest quarterly growth, while the North of England, the North West and London were the only regions to experience a quarterly decline.
The standard house price in London was £438,135 in the fourth quarter of 2017, which was by far the highest level of all UK regions.
Within the South East, the standard property price finished the year at £341,964, while the next highest level was in the South West at £240,604.
The lowest standard property prices in the fourth quarter were in Northern Ireland, where the average home was priced at £129,492, the North of England, at £142,398 and Scotland at £147,910.