Yahoo Finance The London boroughs where property prices are rising fastest
The London property market has faced a rocky few years since the EU referendum, but analysts say it could see a spring bounce following the UK election—and price trends vary sharply across the capital.
After a long spell of spiralling prices, growth in recent years has been curbed or even gone into reverse amid Brexit uncertainty, government regulatory reforms and an affordability crunch.
Analysis by property site Rightmove (RMV.L) shows prices across Greater London slid by 0.5% in the year to December. The average home in London and the south-east also took 73 days to sell, the second longest in Britain behind the north-east of England.
The average length of time to sell on Rightmove has increased in London every month since June, according to its figures.
But Mile Shipside, Rightmove’s director, said earlier this month the London market was “finally showing tentative signs of bottoming out,” and predicted growth across the south of around 1% in 2020.
READ MORE: Rightmove on how prices will fare throughout 2020
Rightmove predicts sales and prices could pick up nationally in the spring from the “greater certainty” over Brexit and the economy after the Conservatives’ decisive election victory broke the deadlock at Westminster.
The average home in London also remains far more valuable than everywhere else in the country. The average sale price in the capital stood at £600,145 in December, around four times higher than the average property in Scotland or the north-east.
Crucially the picture is varied across the capital, with notable growth in some parts of the city but sharp decline in others over the past year.
Tower Hamlets in the east of the city has seen the highest growth year-on-year, according to Rightmove, up 1.9% to an average December asking price of £591,000.
READ MORE: Key stat shows it has got a lot more expensive to buy Scottish property
The boroughs of Barnet to the north, Merton, Sutton and Bexley to the south and Hounslow to the west have also seen growth of more than 1.2% over the year.
At the other end of the table, prices have crashed most in the Brent local authority district in north-west London. They are down 4.2% to an average of £552,000.
Hammersmith and Fulham saw prices slide 3.6% and Kensington and Chelsea saw a 3.3% decline. Both districts include some of the wealthiest parts of the capital, though also include poorer neighbourhoods.
10 London boroughs where property prices rose fastest in 2019
Here are the boroughs with fastest-rising prices, with the areas with the highest annual growth first:
10 London boroughs where property prices dropped most in 2019
Here are the 10 districts where prices fell most over the year to December, ranked in ascending order:
