Staggering 24% year-on-year increase in house prices for St Albans district
01-13-2015
A sold sign on the streets of St Albans
St Albans’ housing market has emerged as top performer among England’s major towns and cities, with prices up 24 per cent year-on-year according to a recent survey.
Robert Gardner, chief economist of Nationwide, which has recently released statistics on the property market, said that while prices had increased 10.6 per cent in England for the year to December 2013, St Albans had outperformed London and Reading.
The average house price in the capital city now stands at £446,455 – a 16 per cent increase from a year ago.
A recent house price index survey by Nationwide for the three months to December 2014 showed that the average price of a home in this district was now £494,777 – a jump from £479,497 the previous quarter when St Albans was also the best performer.
This echoed research by property website Zoopla which recently said that local home values had continued to soar and easily better the rest of the country, with Harpenden and Radlett the biggest boom towns outside of London.
Robert said: “Among the other English regions the outer south east and outer metropolitan areas continued to outperform, recording double digit annual growth rates. Yorkshire and Humberside was the weakest performing English region, with prices up 1.5 per cent over the year.”
Manchester was the worst performing city, with no price growth.
However both the Zoopla and Nationwide findings have raised concerns for Labour deputy group leader in St Albans, Cllr Jacob Quagliozzi.
He said: “Increasing house prices in St Albans tell a tale of two cities. While good news for some, there are still many across St Albans for whom home ownership is out of their reach and a council house is not an option.
“These forgotten families are cast off into the private rented sector moving every six or 12 months and paying letting fees and high rents.
“The council and the government have a responsibility to help these families, not just do a victory lap over another housing bubble.”