Britain’s No 1 property hotspot? The Cotswolds

THE Cotswolds was yesterday named the UK’s top property hotspot as demand for homes drove up prices by more than 15 per cent.

A typical home in the region – famed for its honey- coloured stone cottages and rolling hills – cost £384,745 in July.

That was 16.2 per cent higher than a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The figures relate to homes only within the Cotswold District Council area in Gloucestershire, which includes Cirencester.

The Cotswolds region as a whole, covers Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, including Chipping Norton, Cheltenham and Stroud. Nationally, the ONS said the average house price rose by 5.1 per cent – £11,000 – in a year, hitting £226,000.

London was the region with the slowest growth in prices for the first time in 12 years as higher stamp duty and tougher mortgage regulations hit demand. A typical home in the capital rose in value by 2.8 per cent to £489,000 in the year to July.

By contrast, prices in the East Midlands jumped 7.5 per cent and in the East by 7.1 per cent.

The Cotswolds has become a favourite destination for celebrities as well as families and weekend visitors from across the country. David and Victoria Beckham recently paid more than £6million for a home near Chipping Norton.

Nick Leeming, of estate agent Jackson- Stops, said that the demand had been driven by families moving from London and the Home Counties. He said: ‘Very often these are people who are able to be flexible in their working lives and are keen to give their children the best possible environment in which to grow up.’

Estate agent Savills said that the area’s property market was ‘highly charged’.

The figures make a mockery of warnings that the Brexit vote would hammer the market.

Before the referendum, thenchancellor George Osborne – architect of the Remain campaign’s Project Fear – warned a vote to leave the EU would send house prices tumbling.

Paul Smith, of estate agent Haart, said: ‘How can economists and industry commenters alike claim we are experiencing a Brexit-induced downturn in the property market, when the average buyer is having to pay £11,000 more to buy a home than they did following the vote to leave?’