A tale of 20 Cities
Hometrack figures released today show that although markets seem to be softening in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, other regional cities show significant house price growth. Manchester and Birmingham both showed annual price growth over 8%. Southampton, Portsmouth, and Bournemouth all have a strong showing as well with growth apparently over 6%.
These are all areas that we track as part of the "UK Powerhouse" initiative with CEBR. It will be interesting to see how investment in infrastructure and industry, regional devolution, and Brexit all influence the housing markets outside of the M25/London bubble.
It is always worth remembering that although there is a well-recognised housing affordability/supply crisis in the South there are different and just as pressing concerns in other parts of the UK.
Cities that have been driving house price growth over the last two to three years, such as London and Cambridge, are now seeing a significant slowdown, while large regional cities continue to register robust and sustained levels of house price growth.’”
