House price inflation slowest in more expensive cities

UK city house prices rose by 2.9% over the 12 months to January 2019 – but with marked regional variations. The latest HometrackCities Index, which looks at house prices across Britain’s top 20 major cities, showed prices are rising fastest at 6% in Leicester, followed by 5.8% in Belfast and 5.4% in Manchester. However, house price inflation in London was virtually flat at 0.2%, the second slowest growth outside of Cambridge. Three of the bottom four cities for growth did still have the highest average house price, with London, Cambridge and Oxford all above £400,000. The data also showed that the weakest housing markets have the longest sales periods and largest discounts; in Aberdeen and inner London, discounts on asking prices reach 7% on average, with it taking 16 weeks to sell, on average.

City AM (01.03/2019)