House prices in parts of London that were once at the epicentre of the UK property boom have fallen as much as 15% over the past year in fresh evidence of the impact of the EU referendum.
Figures from Your Move, one of the UK’s biggest estate agency chains, reveal that the average home in Wandsworth – which includes much of Clapham, Balham and Putney – fell by more than £100,000 in value over the last 12 months.
But property prices have surged in the north-west of England, with Blackburn recording the highest growth rates in the UK.
Homes in the London borough of Wandsworth were fetching an average of £805,000 in January 2017 but this has now fallen to £685,000.
Other London boroughs are also showing steep price falls. In Southwark, south London, the average price has dropped from £666,000 to £585,000 in 12 months, while prices have pegged back in Islington, north London, from £750,000 to £684,000.
Wandsworth and Southwark are home to huge speculative property developments facing on to the River Thames – including the Battersea Power Station development – but the market for £1m-plus one-bed properties has shrivelled in recent years.
Your Move said that across the capital average prices were down 2.6% over the year, and have now fallen for the last three months in a row. “This is the steepest annual rate of decline in London prices since August 2009, during the last housing slump, which was itself associated with the banking credit crisis of 2008-09,” it said.
The north-west of England has now replaced the capital as the fastest-growing property market in the UK. Top of the league for price growth is Blackburn, which recorded average prices ahead by 16.4% over the last 12 months.
Warrington is also seeing double-digit growth, with prices up 10.3%. “The north-west’s major conurbations are also performing strongly; Greater Manchester prices are up 4.3%; in Merseyside prices have increased by 8%,” said Your Move.
Nationally, prices grew by 0.5% on the month, but annualised rate of change has fallen to just 0.6%.
“While there have been monthly increases in house prices for the last two months, the annual rate of growth has slowed in England and Wales. Although its beginnings were in London, this has now spread to the south-east and north-east too. All three have seen prices fall on an annual basis,” said Your Move.
Last week figures from Halifax also highlighted how the UK property market is slowing. It said the annual rate of house price growth has fallen to 1.8%, its lowest level for almost five years.
With the most recent official data showing earnings growth averaging 2.5%, that means that unusually, wages are currently outpacing house prices.
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