Keep going!As purchasers looked for more affordable areas, Trent experienced the largest increase in home prices this year, whereas Huddersfield and other London boroughs suffered a decline in value, according to a lender.
With a 17.2% increase to an average of £227,002 in the 12 months leading up to September 2024, Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire topped Halifax's list of the largest regional home price risers and fallers in the UK.
After the city was the largest faller in 2023, this represented a turnaround.
According to the Halifax data, Slough in Berkshire, which saw a 14.9% increase in prices to an average of £497,704, and Oldham in Greater Manchester, which saw a 14.6% increase to £250,546, were the next closest.
Some areas of the UK... have seen remarkable house price growth this year, as buyers perhaps seek out more affordable areas
Amanda Bryden, Halifax head of mortgages
In a similar reversal of fortunes, Huddersfield in West Yorkshire lost its place at the top of the growth league last year to slip to the bottom in 2024, with prices down by 6.6 per cent on average to £260,498.
It was a similar picture in Wirral, Merseyside, where prices dropped 5.4 per cent to an average of £294,250.
The London story
London dominated the fallers board, with a raft of boroughs across the capital seeing declines as affordability was put under pressure by high prices.
Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said: “Some areas of the UK – including Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Dunfermline – have seen remarkable house price growth this year, as buyers perhaps seek out more affordable areas where house prices, despite increases, are still coming in under the national average.
“This trend is causing house prices in some areas to flip from slowing, to growing, such as Stoke-on-Trent, which was the biggest faller last year but showed the highest rate of growth regionally this year.”
She added: “The high asking price for London properties means house prices have fallen in several boroughs – perhaps a reflection that the relatively high cost of properties is stretching affordability for buyers, or perhaps what they are willing to pay.”
The past year has seen interest rates cut twice, in August and November, to end 2024 at 4.75 per cent, but buyers are still struggling with affordability as borrowing costs remain high and amid other cost-of-living pressures.
The research from Halifax showed that regionally, the South East of England had the slowest price growth, at 1.8 per cent, while Northern Ireland was top of the table with 10.6 per cent, followed by Yorkshire and The Humber at 6.4 per cent.
London prices rose overall despite falls across a number of boroughs, up 3.6 per cent in the year.
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