Big house price growth in southern cities

Robust demand and strong local economies are behind the significant house price growth seen in southern cities.

That's according to the latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index, which revealed a number of cities in the south of England have seen much higher house price growth than the nation as a whole.

House prices have increased by an average of £11,500 in the 12 months to May 2015 across the nation. But seven cities in the south have significantly outperformed this benchmark.

Oxford led the way, with average price rises of more than £41,000, almost four times the national average. It was followed by London (£38,900), Cambridge (£23,900), Bristol (£22,400), Southampton (£15,300), Bournemouth (£15,300) and Portsmouth (£15,000).

Here's the 10 cities that have seen the strongest performance over the last year:

City	Current price	Gain in last 12 months
Oxford	£380,100	£41,700
London	£425,700	£38,900
Cambridge	£359,200	£23,900
Bristol	£227,600	£22,400
Bournemouth	£246,300	£15,300
Southampton	£198,500	£15,300
Portsmouth	£198,000	£15,000
Leicester	£146,700	£9,500
Belfast	£118,900	£9,300
Aberdeen	£193,600	£9,300
UK	£189,400	£11,500

Source: Hometrack Cities House Price Index

While all 20 cities that Hometrack monitors in its index recorded house price gains over the last year, three northern cities fared the worst, adding less than half the UK average to house prices: Liverpool (£4,200), Newcastle (£4,700) and Sheffield (£5,300).

Richard Donnell, Director of Research at Hometrack, said that the results revealed the "diverse nature" of the housing market in the UK. He continued: "All cities are making gains at different rates of growth, but the cities with the biggest increases all have something in common - strong local economies."

He added that double digit growth in Oxford, London and Cambridge is being sustained by a lack of supply and below average transaction volumes, with a third of sales funded by cash or buy-to-let mortgages.