Summer in the cities

The Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index has found that annual house price inflation plateaued at 10.2 per cent in June, the same level as May 2016, but still ahead of 6.9 per cent growth seen in June 2015. Bristol remains the fastest growing city in the UK with a year on year growth rate of 14.7 per cent, but year-on-year house price inflation in London and in other cities in the south of England, such as Cambridge and Southampton started to slow between May and June 2016. Conversely, large cities in northern parts of the UK such as Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds have registered strong growth in the last quarter on the back of more affordable prices, lower interest rates, improving local economies and higher yields making purchases attractive to investors. For all cities in England and Wales, excluding London, new listings have grown 10 per cent faster than the 12 month average, this rises to over 15 per cent in London. In contrast is an 8 per cent relative fall in sales in London i.e. 8 per cent fewer homes sold per month in the last 3 months compared to the 12 month average. Richard Donnell, Insight…