Ealing has seen the strongest house price growth in London over the past year, bucking the general downward trend for the property market in the country.
Prices in the west London borough rose 7.5 per cent to £531,137, adding £37,027 to the average home in the borough in just a year, according to Halifax.
The research shows that across the UK the average house price fell by 3.9 per cent between Q3 2022 and the same period in 2023.
At a more local level, only 70 out of more than 300 local authorities in the country saw house prices increase with the biggest price rises seen in cheaper areas outside the capital.
Ealing came sixth on the top 10 list, followed by Westminster and the City of London, where house prices were up 7.4 per cent, to £767,350.
Only two other London boroughs saw growth over the last year. They were Haringey, up by 1.7 per cent (to £530,584) and Southwark, up by just 0.3 per cent (to £481,589).
Christened the Queen of the Suburbs by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, Ealing has seen billions of pounds of investment pouring into its Zone 3 town centre with thousands of new homes, shops and leisure facilities.
This is thanks in large part to the coming of Crossrail to the area, which has slashed journey times into central London. It now takes 12 minutes to reach Paddington from Ealing Broadway and 25 minutes to get to Tottenham Court Road.
The relatively small number of homes in Westminster and the City of London mean that house price data can be volatile in those boroughs, and the increase shown by the Halifax data is not representative of the upper end of the London market as a whole.
A separate report from LonRes showed prime London sold prices fell 3.3 per cent, bringing prices in line with early 2014 levels.
UK property prices
The strongest price growth in the country was seen in Powys in Wales, where property values increased by 17.4 per cent, bringing the average house price in this large, sparsely populated area to just under £254,000.
East Lindsay in the East Midlands was the next highest riser, with prices up 13.3 per cent to £220,421, while prices rose 10.7 per cent in Moray in Scotland, pushing them to £179,606.
Babergh in the East of England (up 10.3 per cent to £350,000) and Sunderland in the North East (up 8.9 per cent to £150,862) completed the top five risers.
“There are multiple factors which can impact house prices in your local area, ranging from the mix of properties available and the extent of any new housing, to the quality of schools and abundance of job opportunities,” said Kim Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages.
“What’s clear is that the UK housing market is not a single-entity that performs in a uniform way across the country, there are differences.
“While at a national level the current squeeze on mortgage affordability has seen property prices fall over the last year, in many regions there remain pockets of house price growth. While a limited supply of properties for sale could be a factor, this also suggests in some areas, local market activity – and demand among buyers – remains strong.
“Many of the places highlighted in our research also benefit from more remote or rural surroundings and incorporate areas of outstanding natural beauty. These are traits which continue to be desirable for prospective homeowners, bucking the trend of the wider performance of the housing market.”
