According to the most recent UK cities house price index, which is produced by Hometrack, Glasgow in the UK city where home prices are shooting up at the fastest rate.
The index revealed that prices in Glasgow have rocketed 7.9% in 2017, and is shortly followed by Edinburgh, where the annual house price inflation is currently running at 7.6%.
In November 2017, the annual headline rate of growth hit the 6.3% mark, which is noticeably up from 4.9% in 2016. Hometrack have stated that the overall rate of house price inflation has sped at an alarming pace over the previous six months, which is being driven by a huge demand for housing in the regional cities outside of London and across southern England.
The index seems to think that looking to the future, the price of housing across all UK cities will rise by around 5% by the end of 2018.
It seems that the most notable and largest increases are coming in cities where house prices are either at or below their pre-recession rates of 2007. As well as the big two cities in Scotland, Leicester (7.5%), Nottingham (6.4%), Manchester (6.6%) and Birmingham (7.3) are also in the group of high-growth cities.
In amidst that, London is currently going through what Hometrack is describing as “a drawn-out period during which there will be a slow re-alignment of house prices and earnings”. In 2018, inflation is set to be around 1%, which suggests that falling prices is happening in real terms.
Speaking about the results, Richard Donnell – the research and insight director at Hometrack – commented on the growth, and gave his thoughts on the markets.
“Over the last 12 months there has been a dramatic south to north shift in the momentum of house price growth which has culminated in Glasgow registering the fastest rate of house price inflation in the UK,” Donnell said.
“In Glasgow, Edinburgh and many other large regional cities, affordability is less of a barrier than in London and the south-east, particularly for first-time buyers, and with mortgage rates remaining low this is helping to stimulate demand and increase activity in these markets.”
