North-west enjoyed highest house price growth last year

March 3, 2021 by Brendan O'Neill

House Prices

New figures show that, while the average price of a home across the UK continued to rise during 2020, the area that enjoyed a particular boom in prices was the north-west, which led the country.

For 2020, the Office for National Statistics House Price Index shows that average property prices for the UK went up by 8.5%. That was the highest year-on-year growth in prices that the housing market has seen since 2014, but the national figure was dwarfed by that for the north-west region. In that area, there was an 11.2% increase in house prices.

There are a number of reasons for the strong national price growth, from people wanting to take advantage of the rise in the stamp duty threshold to lockdown making homeowners keen to move to properties that offer them more space.

The estate agent Savills pointed out that, as people seek to find larger properties that enable them to work from home more comfortably, the north-west still offers these at more affordable prices than London and other parts of the south. For that reason, Savills has indicated that it expects the region to lead the way in price growth again this year, with an 8.5% rise anticipated by the end of 2021.

The property boom in the north-west will have a knock-on effect on other industries, for example, with more people wanting to take CeMAP classes in Manchester and other cities in the region to become mortgage advisors.