Major UK cities see growth in house prices

House prices across the UK's major cities have recorded their strongest quarterly growth for three years, according to property analysts Hometrack.

Despite uncertainty surrounding the snap General Election and Brexit, average house prices have increased by 3.5% over the previous three months, the index, which tracks the UK's 20 biggest cities, found. This was the biggest quarterly rate of growth seen since June 2014.

This increase was driven by above-average quarterly house price growth in large regional cities away from the South East of England, such as Birmingham and Nottingham, which both saw growth of 3.8%, Newcastle, where prices lifted by 3.5% and Manchester, which saw a 3.3% house price rise.

Apart from Oxford and Aberdeen, where prices have fallen in the last quarter by 0.6% and 0.9% respectively, all cities included in the index have registered higher prices over the past three months, Hometrack said.

In London, house prices showed a quarterly increase of 1.9%.

Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Hometrack, said: “There is clear potential for additional house price growth in cities outside South Eastern England. House prices in London have grown 90% since 2009 but growth in 10 cities has been below 30% over the same period.

“So long as the economy continues to grow, and mortgage rates remain low, we expect house prices to keep rising at a steady rate and close the gap to London.'