The UK's property winners and losers

Dog playing in field in rural neighborhood
Dog playing in field in rural neighborhood



With experts predicting a flatlining housing market at best over the next few years, canny househunters are heading for one of the UK's property hotspots.

And a new report from home services marketplace Plentific identifies those areas of rising prices, with Aylesbury top of the list. With London's commuter belt getting bigger all the time, prices in the Buckinghamshire town have rocketed by 21.5% over the last year.

Second on the list is Greenwich, one of several London boroughs in the top ten, with a rise of 19.9% in the last year. Third is Ipswich, where prices are up 19.6%: "Which might come as a surprise to some," says Plentific.

It's noticeable, though, that the list is dominated by the south east, with nearly half of the listed areas being in London.

This could cause UK property prices to crash in 2017

Wirral is the only northern area to make the top ten, with a rise of 16.58%; average properties in this area will have increased by over £32,000 this year alone.

"'Our report shows the winners and losers in property this year," says Plentific spokesperson Stephen Jury.

"More importantly, it gives valuable insight to those wanting to get onto the property ladder or invest in property in areas with good potential for price increases."

Is this evidence that UK property is the best investment around?

Only one district has actually shown a fall in prices over the last year: Middlesbrough, where they're down 1.6%. But many Northern towns have showed pretty minimal price rises. In Rotherham, for example, they're only up by 3.5%, by 3.1% in Salford and just 3% in Bradford.

Bucking the north-south trend, though, is Westminster in London: prices have fallen by 3.67% over the past year. Prices being what they are in central London, that means an average drop of £50,000.

And following a meteoric rise in Hackney's property market over the last few years, it seems prices are levelling off: property here was up by just 3.2% this year.

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The top ten hotspots:
Aylesbury: average price £381,787 - up 21.50%
Greenwich: average price £611,169 - up 19.91%
Ipswich: average price £265,267 - up 19.59%
Brentwood: average price £534,094 - up 19.43%
Chelsea: average price £2,166,805 - up 18.00%
Hammersmith: average price £1,027,929 - up 17.46
Sutton: average price £465,750 - up 17.39%
St Albans: average price £599,772 - up 17.28%
Reading: average price £445,375 - up 16.90%
Wirral: average price £229,950 - up 16.58%


The bottom ten performers:
Highland: average price £174,898 - up 5.02%
Stoke-on-Trent: average price £143,924 - up 5.02%
Newquay: average price £262,010 - up 3.80%
Rotherham: average price £146,975 - up 3.48%
Hackney: average price £599,139 - up 3.22%
Salford: average price £155,462 - up 3.08%
Bradford: average price £128,655 - up 2.99%
St Ives: average price £334,376 - up 0.21%
Middlesbrough: average price £143,448 - down 1.62%
Westminster: average price £1,201,932 - down 3.67%



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