Graphic: Gulf in house price recovery revealed
07-03-2014
Graphic: Gulf in house price recovery revealed
Prices in London roar ahead of pre-crisis peak, while rest of country still below past highs
House prices in London, the South East and the East are sitting well above their pre-financial crisis peaks, while those across the rest of the UK still have widely varying distances left to climb, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has compiled a map which sheds more light on how strongly house prices in each region have recovered, by comparing them with their previous peaks reached around 2007/08, just before the effects of the financial crisis were felt by the housing market.
The map is based on the April house price index and shows average prices at a high of £260,000. That level is now 6.5% higher than the index peak reached in January 2008.
However, the map shows how far London is driving the average price upwards.
At £485,000, average values in the capital are now almost one third (31.6%) higher than their pre-crisis peak, according to the ONS figures.
Prices in the South East and the East now stand at 7.2% and 4.7% above their previous highs respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, house prices in Northern Ireland face by far the steepest climb to return to their pre-crisis levels.
At around £132,000, the price of a Northern Ireland property is still typically 49.6% below its previous peak, which was recorded in summer 2007.
After Northern Ireland, property prices in the North West have the next largest climb to return to their previous highs, followed by those in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Values in the North West are 6.1% below peak levels while those in the Yorkshire area are 6% below their previous highs.
At £187,000 on average in Scotland, property prices there have a 4.7% climb to return to their peak levels, while those in Wales, at £166,000 on average, are sitting at around 3.5% below their peak.
The South West is the only region of southern England where prices have still to reach their peak levels, with the average price there standing at £238,000.
Meanwhile, as the housing market revival gathers momentum across the country, the West Midlands is the region where prices are closest to edging up to their previous highs, with a 1.1% climb left to go.