People with a contractor mortgage in Bristol might be interested to learn that the city’s housing market is outperforming many of the other UK regions. The average price of a residential property in Bristol is now £224,982.
Nationwide’s latest research shows that property values in Bristol increased by 4% in the final quarter of 2011 when viewed against the comparable period of 2010. This might seem like a small increase when you consider the speed at which house prices rose during the housing market but, but following a 3% increase in quarter 3, Bristol is now one on the best-performing provincial cities in the UK.
House prices in Bradford rose by an astonishing 10% last year, followed by Cambridge at 7% and Bath at 5%. London, with a house price increase of 7%, is treated as a region rather than a city in Nationwide’s table.
An increase in house prices is obviously good news for existing property owners, but for struggling first time buyers it provides little comfort.
Robert Gardner, the chief economist at Nationwide, said that although the housing market did not put up a strong performance last year, house prices did not suffer too badly despite weak economic growth and rising unemployment.
However, he went on to point out that mortgage approvals were still well down on the boom days and demand and supply were both weak. The weakness in both demand and supply ensured that prices did not move strongly either up or down. Gardner expects this year to be much the same as last and if economic conditions deteriorate buyers could be put off entering the market.
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