Out of the 30 cities we track via the Land Registry, since 2005, property prices have risen above the average annual 2.9% inflation rate in 18 cities/towns. The cities with the highest rises range across the country:

• Glasgow
• Manchester
• Bristol
• London
• Cambridge
• Edinburgh

Bradford, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Peterborough, Milton Keynes, Gloucester, and Oxford have performed slightly better than inflation, but some are just on a par.

Meanwhile, Southampton, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Aberdeen have all seen property prices rise at less than inflation – on average. So, the 50%+ of homeowners who own outright haven’t, on average, won’t have made any money on their homes.

What’s interesting is that when we look at the highest risers year on year currently, they mainly include cities that haven’t performed so well – bar Glasgow which is a top performer since 2005.

In contrast, the lower performers are also a mix of cities that have done well over the long term, including Manchester which has seen 5.2% annual growth since 2005, while London has seen good, but lower growth at 4%. This shows how much London prices have been ‘capped’ by the more stringent mortgage rules bought in, in 2014.

What’s also interesting is that, after the dip in prices in 2022, most cities have seen their property prices recover, but we are continuing to see this North/South divide a city level too.

The areas where property prices haven’t yet recovered include:

• Aberdeen
• Peterborough
• Milton Keynes
• Oxford
• Cambridge
• Portsmouth
• Brighton and Hove
• Reading,
• Croydon and London,

Property prices in Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole and Tunbridge Wells prices are on a par.

Although not exclusive, it does appear that cities in the South are struggling to recover more than other, more affordable areas and are likely to be held back by higher mortgage lending costs.

Hopefully, if base rates continue to fall this year, we will see all property prices recovered by end the of the year.

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.