Britain's hottest property spot? Salford, second home of the BBC
07-23-2014
Property prices in Salford, home to the MediaCity UK complex where much of the BBC is now based, have grown by £14,874 or 12pc in just six months
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By News agencies
4:36PM BST 22 Jul 2014
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Salford in Greater Manchester has seen house prices increase at a faster rate in percentage terms than any other urban area of Britain in the first six months of 2014, a new study shows.
Property prices in Salford, which is home to the MediaCity UK complex where much of the BBC is now based, have grown by £14,874 or 12pc in just six months to reach an average £138,619, according to an index published by the property listings website Zoopla. It was ahead of an 8pc rise for London prices.
The BBC now has 3,000 staff in Salford, which has a population of around 230,000, and continues to transfer more posts to its second home. A report by the National Audit Office last year criticised the cost of relocating staff. It found a total of 894 staff were paid relocation allowances worth a total of £16m, a cost that was expected to rise to £24m.
The Salford Quays area has flourished after a major redevelopment of the former industrial area, which began in the Eighties.
Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said: "Over the past few years, Salford especially has prospered from job creation in the area, which has helped boost the local property market.
"Property price growth has largely been a London and South East story until recently, so it is very encouraging to see the house price recovery broadening and the ripple effect starting to take hold further north."
The research showed homes across Britain typically added £90 to their value every day during the first half of 2014 as the housing market gathered momentum.
London home owners have seen their property's worth climb by around £238 a day while those in Scotland have seen a much more modest £10 daily increase in values, according to the research by Zoopla.
Across Britain, the average property price stands at £260,488, which is 6.5pc or £16,265 in cash terms higher than in January, equating to a £90-a-day increase over the first six months of this year, the study found.
Despite the market recovery, some home owners have also seen the value of their home dwindle over the last six months. Wadebridge in Cornwall was named by Zoopla as the worst-performing town over the half-year for property prices, with values there having fallen by around £40 a day, or more than £7,000 over the whole six-month period.
Salford Quays area has been transformed
Brough in Yorkshire, St Leonards-On-Sea in East Sussex, Tavistock in Devon, Faringdon in Oxfordshire, Prudhoe in Northumberland and Caldicot in Monmouthshire were also on the list of property hotspots dotted up and down the country.
At the other end of the scale and sitting alongside Wadebridge, were Ryton in Tyne and Wear, Newton-Le-Willows in Merseyside and Treorchy in South Wales, which were named as places where prices have seen particularly sharp falls in recent months.
London house prices have grown at a lower percentage rate than those in Salford, with an 8.2pc increase recorded in the capital over the last six months, but in cash terms the increase is much bigger, at £43,115 over the whole six-month period, or £238 a day, pushing the typical price of a property there to £567,392.
All regions across Britain have seen prices increase over the last six months, with London's upswing followed by a 7.5pc or £19,440 increase in property prices in the East of England over the last half-year, equating to a £107-a-day rise in the typical house value there.
A 7.4pc or £23,031 surge in values was also recorded in South East England, working out at an increase of around £127 a day to the average house price.
In North West England, prices have increased typically by £10,591 over the last six months, equating to a £58 a day increase.
Property values in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East have both climbed by around £50 a day over the first half of 2014.
The values in Wales have lifted by 3.5pc over the last six months, which is the equivalent of adding around £31 a day to the price of a property there.
On a regional basis, Scotland has seen the smallest increase in property prices over the last six months, with a 1.1pc rise over the half year, equating to a daily increase of around £10.
Zoopla's calculations are based on a formula it uses to work out the market value of a home on any given day, taking into account factors such as recent house sale prices in a given area and current local asking prices. Sources used for this valuation estimate include the Government, estate agents, surveyors and users of Zoopla's website.
What next for house prices?
While the housing market is generally continuing to show signs of strengthening, some recent reports have highlighted evidence that the pace of the recovery is slowing, particularly following the introduction of toughened mortgage lending rules at the end of April, which mean applicants have to undergo stronger checks into their spending habits to make sure they can afford their home loan.
The Bank of England has also recently announced new curbs for the mortgage market, saying that loans of 4.5 times a borrower's income or higher should account for no more than 15pc of new mortgages issued by lenders. It also said that lenders should ensure that borrowers can keep up their mortgage repayments in the event of a rise of up to 3pc in interest rates over the first five years of the loan.
A report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has found that the majority of London-based surveyors now expect house prices in the English capital to fall in the next three months. Rics said that inquiries from potential buyers in London are now starting to slip back.
London house prices increased by a record annual rate of 20.1pc in May, according to a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released last week.
Here is how average property prices have increased in each region since January, with the average property value in July followed by the increase in cash and percentage terms since January:
• London, £567,392, £43,115, 8.2%
• East of England, £278,347, £19,440, 7.5%
• South East England, £333,953, £23,031, 7.4%
• South West England, £255,606, £16,482, 6.9%
• North West England, £170,645, £10,591, 6.6%
• Yorkshire and the Humber, £155,684, £9,131, 6.2%
• East Midlands, £181,537, £10,167, 5.9%
• North East England, £172,740, £9,008, 5.5%
• West Midlands, £191,647, £9,250, 5.1%
• Wales £165,642, £5,611, 3.5%
• Scotland, £170,800, £1,793, 1.1%
Here are Zoopla's "best performing towns" of the first half of 2014 for house prices, with the average property value in July followed by the increase since January in cash and percentage terms:
1. Salford, Greater Manchester, £138,619, £14,874, 12.0%
2. Brough, Yorkshire, £236,340, £25,184, 11.9%
=3. St Leonards-On-Sea, East Sussex, £186,228, £19,690, 11.8%
=3. Brentford, London, £411,231, £43,415, 11.8%
=3. Tavistock, Devon, £268,587, £28,282, 11.8%
6. Hunstanton, Norfolk, £262,660, £27,446, 11.7%
7. Greenford, London, £344,422, £35,678, 11.6%
=8. Faringdon, Oxfordshire, £334,057, £34,427, 11.5%
=8. Prudhoe, Northumberland, £175,359, £18,029, 11.5%
=8. Caldicot, Monmouthshire, £222,346, £22,847, 11.5%
Here are Zoopla's "worst performing towns" of the first half of 2014 for house prices, with the average property value in July followed by the change since January in cash and percentage terms:
1. Wadebridge, Cornwall, £342,192, minus £7,218, minus 2.1%
2. Ryton, Tyne and Wear, £152,224, minus £2,897, minus 1.9%
3. Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside, £136,504, minus £2,240, minus 1.6%
4. Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taff, £74,428, minus £1,157, minus 1.5%
5. Bacup, Lancashire, £112,869, minus £1,457, minus 1.3%
6. Accrington, Lancashire, £103,177, minus £1,300, minus 1.24%
7. Burntisland, Fife, £163,630, minus £1,978, minus 1.19%
8. Kinross, Perth and Kinross, £226,347, minus £2,735, minus 1.19%
9. Castleford, West Yorkshire, £122,653, minus £1,420, minus 1.14%
10. Totnes, Devon £330,130, minus £3,700, minus 1.11%