The UK housing market continues to get back on track, led by Manchester property price rises with the biggest year-on-year growth.
There continues to be a regional and north-south divide when it comes to the housing market, with the more affordable markets performing more strongly than the already top-priced pockets of the country.
The latest house price index from Zoopla demonstrates a market that is more balanced than at any time in the past five years, though, according to the property portal, due to the fact that both buyer and seller numbers across the UK have risen this month.
Average house prices across the UK as a whole are now 0.5% higher than they were a year ago (in the HPI which uses June’s figures). This coincides with buyer demand rising by a huge 20% year-on-year, along with sales agreed which have climbed by 23% compared with June 2023.
While recovery is coming to the whole country, the Manchester property market has been one of the most buoyant and resilient cities in the country in recent years, and the latest figures show a continuation of this trend – Manchester property prices have climbed by 2% since June last year, more than any other city in England.
North and south
The north-south divide in the UK housing market has been a marked trend for several years, as the sector experiences its own “levelling up”. This is due to a range of factors, from better affordability away from the capital, to vast improvements in the economies and jobs markets in regional towns and cities.
Research has also shown that there may be a rise in the number of landlords selling up in London, while property investment in the north of the country has remained a much more competitive space. This has been led by the likes of the Manchester property market, as well as places such as Birmingham and Liverpool.
Zoopla’s latest house price index shows that while most parts of the country are seeing house price growth, the south east, south west and East Midlands are still lagging behind with small price falls, demonstrating potentially lower levels of buyer interest in these areas.
Strong Manchester property prospects
The Manchester property space has been especially popular among buyers and investors for a number of years, with recent research showing that Manchester property investors had achieved 65% growth over the course of eight years.
With the regeneration and redevelopment of the city far from finished, there is plenty more scope for buyers to continue to snap up homes and investments in the city, which is likely to keep it at the front of the pack when it comes to city house price growth.
Belfast is the only UK city to sit ahead of Manchester, with a 5.1% annual house price increase since June 2023. After Manchester, Liverpool is the second strongest city with a 1.7% house price rise.
Broadening out to the regions, after Northern Ireland with 5.1% average house price growth over the past year, the North West saw price rises of 1.9% on average – matched by Scotland.
The north east comes next with a 1.3% increase, followed by the West Midlands (1.2%), Yorkshire and the Humber (1.1%), and Wales (1.1%). The rest of the regions have seen small house price dips annually, although individual locations within these spaces will have seen varying performance.
Positivity in the market
Commenting on the latest Zoopla house price index, Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said: “There is a real positivity within the housing market now that the economy seems to have stabilised.
“This is the UK Government’s chance to take advantage of current market confidence by clarifying a more precise timeframe for enacting the Planning and Infrastructure Bill as this will build the homes desperately needed in order to keep up with ever-growing demand and start to form a plan of action if the government wants to meet its target of building nearly two million new homes across the next parliamentary term.”
If you’re interested in Manchester property investment, or want to find out about another lucrative investment location in the UK, get in touch today to speak with one of our property investment consultants.
