Edinburgh, Glasgow lead house price inflation

Edinburgh is the fastest growing city in the UK for house price inflation, with Glasgow not far behind, according to the Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index for September.

Edinburgh had a 6.7% year-on-year increase, overtaking Manchester (6.5%) and Birmingham (5.9%). Glasgow was in sixth place with 5.3% growth.

“While most cities are registering house price growth below that a year ago, there are six cities where the annual rate of growth is higher, most notably in Scotland,” said the Hometrack report.

“Residential transactions data from HMRC shows there has been a 20% increase in the monthly run rate of sales over the last quarter in Scotland.

“Increased activity has supported an acceleration in the rate of house price growth.

“Edinburgh is the fastest growing city covered by the index (6.7%), overtaking Manchester (6.5%) and Birmingham (5.9%) where the rate of inflation has moderated slightly.

“Glasgow has also recorded a marked increase in the rate of house price inflation from 1.8% a year ago to 5.3% today.

“While Aberdeen has registered a 15% decline in average prices since 2015, the rate of annual rate of growth has slowed to -1.8%, the lowest level for exactly two years.”

The report added: “There are five cities where the current level of nominal house price growth is below the rate of consumer price inflation – Aberdeen, Cambridge, Oxford, London and Cardiff.”