Property winners of 2007

Belfast, Aberdeen and London saw the biggest growth in house prices during 2007, Nationwide has said.

St Albans remains the most expensive town in the UK with an average house price
of almost £350,000, but it is Belfast which saw the fastest rate of house price growth in the UK – increasing almost by £200 a day.

During 2007, Nationwide said that “a total of five towns and cities broke through the £300,000 barrier. Belfast, Oxford, London, Brighton and Cambridge joined St Albans as towns and cities in the UK where the average house price exceeds £300,000.”

Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist, said:”Belfast saw the fastest rate of house price growth in 2007. Prices increased by 32% to take the average house price to £306,698. This is equivalent to an increase of £201 per day and brings Belfast up to fifth place in the ranking of most expensive towns and cities in our sample (up from seventh place this time last year), overtaking Edinburgh and Cambridge.

St Albans is still the most expensive town in which to buy a house in the UK. The average price in St Albans is £347,563 – over £40,000 higher than in Belfast and just over £8,000 more than its closest rival Oxford. House prices in St Albans increased by 13% during the year, this is equivalent to a daily increase of £112.

Oxford and Cambridge broke through the £300,000 barrier and Oxford maintained its position as the second most expensive town in our sample. However, its boat race rival Cambridge slipped back two places to sixth place. Oxford saw the fourth fastest rate of growth during 2007 (joint with St Albans), at 13% compared to the 9% rise in prices experienced by Cambridge.

In the North, Newcastle and Durham both saw prices fall by 3% in 2007. Durham is the cheapest city in our sample with an average house price of £152,902. Newcastle slipped back three places to 24th place in 2007. House prices fell by the equivalent of £15 per day in 2007 taking the average price of a house in Newcastle to £178,309.

With an average house price of £257,288, Edinburgh was the only Scottish city to appear in the top ten, coming in at seventh place. However, in terms of house price growth, Aberdeen was the stronger performer with an increase of 25% and an average daily rise of £130 – almost double that of Edinburgh.”