‘Hot’ housing market in central England outstrips rest of country

SWATHES of central England are experiencing a “mini-boom” in house price growth which is rising at more than double the national average rate, according to an index.

Northamptonshire, Derbyshire and Norfolk were identified by property website Rightmove as the “hottest markets”, with asking prices in these counties surging annually by 9.1 per cent, 7.9 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively.

This is more than double the 3.1 per cent annual increase in asking prices seen across England and Wales as a whole.

Leicestershire, Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands and Bedfordshire are also seeing particularly strong asking price growth.

At £313,663 in August, the average price tag on a home across England and Wales fell by 0.9 per cent or £2,758 month on month. Rightmove said the monthly fall was in line with trends usually seen during late summer, when potential buyers and sellers are distracted by holidays.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “With newly-marketed property seeing a monthly fall of 0.9 per cent and a muted yearly increase of just 3.1 per cent, the heat has come off much of the market.

“A combination of traditional summertime price blues and the chill of uncertainty in the air has cooled price growth in some parts of the country, and affordability also remains very stretched.

“But despite these factors, high demand and limited supply are still driving momentum, especially in the counties in the middle of the country.

“Here, year-on-year rises at more than twice the pace of the national average are widespread, in contrast to Southern and Northern counties where none have approached these heady heights.”

Rightmove said the best performers in the north of England in terms of annual asking price growth are Merseyside at 5.6 per cent, the East Riding of Yorkshire at 5.4 per cent and Cheshire at 5.3 per cent, while the South’s “less impressive trend-buckers” are Kent at five per cent, Somerset at 3.8 per cent and Bristol at 3.6 per cent.

House prices in the South, however, will tend to be rising from a higher base to start with.