According to the report, city growth ranges from +7.6% in Manchester to -2.8% in Aberdeen. The 3-month growth rate in London is increasing as sellers become more realistic on pricing, while discounts from asking prices in London are narrowing for first time in 2 years. Manchester has the lowest level of price discounting.
Russell Quirk, founder and CEO of Emoov.co.uk, said: “There is optimism returning in Prime Central London, as it had been kicked in the teeth and left in the gutter for a few years but now its managed to crawl itself out.
Although this is typically the time of year where the property market takes a few weeks off to put its feet up on a sunbed, it seems that price growth in the cities isn't taking a rest.
As prices continue to grow annually across the UK cities and the entire nation, perhaps the rise in prices will be even greater this year than the last.”
Ged McPartlin, director at Ascend Properties, comments: “Manchester fails to disappoint once again. The growth here over the past 12 months has been phenomenal and fuelled by a demand from both owner occupiers and investors. The residential market is strong, so the news of little price discounting is not surprising. It’s rare we receive offers far below asking prices which is a fair contrast from what we were seeing several years ago, demonstrating just how strong the market is right now.”
Graham Davidson, managing director of buy to let specialist, Sequre Property Investment, comments: “Once again, Manchester has the highest annual growth rate of 7.4% and it has now been joined at the top of the list by its near neighbour Liverpool at 7.2%. This is certainly no surprise considering the hive of activity that’s ongoing in these great cities. For several years now, buy to let investors have turned their backs on the south to take advantage of the low prices, high yields and capital growth in the north, however, with the lack of true discounts available, investors will need to be far more selective with their investment to truly make the numbers stack up. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t deals to be had, you just need to know where and how to find them.”
Liverpool’s growth of 7.2% is up from just over 2% this time last year, something we’ve been heavily predicting would happen. Deals here are flourishing due to the demand and because the returns are incredibly healthy. For anyone considering investing in this city, now is the time to do it.”
