Manchester had the strongest housing market in August than any other major UK city, a new report from Hometrack UK has shown.
The city registered annual house price growth of 7.3% year-on-year to the end of August, continuing a trend that began in 2014.
Somewhat surprisingly, London experienced the weakest annual growth of just 1.9%, with many first time buyers, home movers and investors moving away from the capital in search for more affordable properties. Many of London’s surrounding cities also fared badly, with Cambridge down to 2.8% and Oxford dropping to 3.8%.
Manchester was closely followed by Birmingham at 6.7%, Edinburgh at 6.6% and Nottingham at 6.2%.
Why is Manchester so popular?
Some believe that the BBC’s move to Salford’s Media City helped to draw greater attention to its neighbour, Manchester. It could be said that this move put Manchester in the spotlight, particularly in terms of its business, media and entertainment industries.
A report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research confirmed that the Manchester economy has grown by 7.5% since 2014 compared to just 6.9% in London.
Businesses from all industries are flocking to Manchester, with a report from Savills showing that during the first half of 2017, the take-up of office space in the city was up 20% compared to the same period in 2016.
Despite showing evidence of huge house price growth, Manchester still boasts some of the most affordable properties in the country.
According to RightMove, most of the sales in Manchester over the past year included semi-detached properties at an average of £203,710. Terraced properties were sold for £153,919 on average and flats were £175,770. Manchester’s overall average property price stands at £187,295 at the time of writing.
