Bristol house prices rising the fastest

HOUSE prices in Bristol have risen the most out of all major British cities in the last five years, figures have revealed.

Property value in the city increased by an average of 8.9 per cent each year from April 2013, beating London – where prices rose 8.6 per cent in the same timeframe, according to Hometrack.

Bristol’s average property price is £278,000 compared with £487,600 in the capital, but the report suggests that sellers in the South are having to accept greater discounts on asking prices to shift homes. Cambridge, London and Oxford saw reductions of up to 4.7 per cent on average – only Liverpool and Newcastle saw larger discounts. The average rise in the 20 cities included in the analysis is 4.9 per cent up on last year, down from typical annual growth of 6.9 per cent in the last five.

Cambridge (0.1 per cent) and London (0.8 per cent) were the two worst performing areas other than Aberdeen – which had falls of 7.2 per cent. Data from the National Association of Estate Agents Propertymark shows that demand from buyers grew by nine per cent last month. On average, estate agents had 337 house-hunters registered per branch, compared to 308 in March.

The supply of homes to buy fell from 40 in March to 33 on average per branch in April.

Mark Hayward, of NAEA Propertymark, said buyers would face ‘stiff competition’ from house-hunters with the supply of available homes falling.