Crystal Palace win the Premiership (but only for house prices)
In football terms, a triumph for Crystal Palace in the Premier League would be something of an upset - especially when it pushes Chelsea out of the top five and sees Manchester United in relegation position. In house price terms, it's something of an upset too.
The Nationwide Building Society looked at the annual percentage change in house prices, to reveal how prices have been doing in the areas around each Premiership stadium.
For years we saw Chelsea crowned as Kings of the Premiership, with soaring prices in central London. Now, however, it's outer London and the commuter belt that takes the title.
Croydon (home to Crystal Palace) saw prices rise an incredible 17% last year at the top of the table. Watford also made it into third place - with prices up 10%. West Ham was second, showing that less loved parts of the capital had a resurgence last year - up 16%.
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Why?
It reflects the fact that while London is still attractive to buyers, central London prices have reached such extremes that demand has started to drop off. The survey found, for example, that the average property around Stamford Bridge costs an eye-watering £797,558. At that level a huge number of buyers are being forced to look elsewhere.
Even the area around Tottenham Hotspur is seeing this effect. Last year it topped the house price Premiership. This year it's down in 12th place. The average house price has hit £526,565, so it's no longer a reasonably affordable option in London.
Buyers are looking for parts of central London in less demand, such as West Ham, where the average house costs £374,702. They are also moving out to Croydon - where the average cost is £341,309 and Watford at £404,224.
The rest of the top five were made up of Norwich City - up 9% and Aston Villa up 6%. Chelsea was joint sixth (with Bournemouth, Everton and Liverpool all on 5%).
Relegation
At the other end of the table, property prices around Manchester United grew just 1% - putting it in relegation position. The only two areas that did worse were Stoke City (which saw no growth), and Sunderland (where prices fell 4%).
Joint fourth from the bottom was shared by West Bromwich Albion, Swansea City, and Leicester City (all growing 2%).
Manchester City - whose ground is positioned elsewhere in the city - saw prices do marginally better, rising 3%.
These performances reflect a general slowdown in house price growth around the UK - beyond the distorting reaches of London. The rest of 2015 is not expected to set house prices alight in any of these areas. Fans can only hope that the same can't be said for their teams.
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