House price update by town and city: Bradford standing out

At city level, we have two main sources of house price data: Hometrack which is around six weeks into the home buying and selling process, and the Land Registry data, which is anything from a few months to six months or more out of date.

There continues to be no ‘pattern’ to the rises and falls in the property market; it’s all dependent now on the local economy, wage growth and stock levels, as well as the property type – detached, semi, terraced or flat.

But Bradford is the only city to appear in the same position for both sets of data.

Out of the 30 cities we track via the Land Registry, since 2005, property prices have only risen above the average annual 3.8% inflation rate in five cities/towns. These include:

– Manchester

– Cambridge

– London

– Bristol

– Brighton and Hove

With the exception of Edinburgh, where the average house price has risen at the same rate as inflation over time, the remaining towns and cities we track actually show that property prices, in many areas, have risen at less than inflation.

The following towns and cities  price growth ‘on average’ are performing below inflation:

– Newcastle upon Tyne

– Aberdeen

– Belfast

– Southampton

– Liverpool

Appendix: City/town property indices price tracking

For city/town tracking, we use Land Registry (government data) and Zoopla/Hometrack. The Land Registry data is useful because we can analyse how property prices have changed over time and this helps us to put today’s price information into context.

The Zoopla/Hometrack data is useful as they take into account the change in mix of property transactions during the pandemic to houses away from flats. This has meant the likes of the Land Registry and other indices have over exaggerated price changes year on year.