Research by property purchasing specialist, HBB Solutions, looked at house prices across each area of the UK since the start of the year to reveal where the property market is starting to buckle when it comes to the worst house price performances.
The research shows that since January 2022, the average UK house price has increased by £18,619, that’s an average increase of £2,660 per month, despite fears that a downturn could be on the cards.
While London has largely trailed the rest of the nation when it comes to house price performance in recent times, the capital remains top of the table when it comes to the actual pounds and pence increase. London house prices have increased by almost £25,500 since the start of the year, an average monthly increase of £3,641.
However, not everyone across the London market has enjoyed the same fortunes and when analysing the market at local authority level, the research by HBB Solutions shows that London accounts for three of the seven areas to have actually seen a decline in property values.
Since the start of the year, house prices across the City of Westminster have tumbled by a huge £92,861 – that’s an average drop of £13,266 every month.
Camden has been the second worst hit pocket of the property market, with house prices dropping £7,754 per month on average since January, with Kensington and Chelsea also making the top three, down by an average of £4,583 per month.
Elmbridge is the worst performing market outside of the capital, where the average house price has seen £307 erased on average each month in 2022.
Gravesham (-£289), Dover (-£68) and Eden (-£8) have also seen the average house price reduce on a monthly basis in 2022, albeit to a lesser extent.
Chris Hodgkinson, Managing Director of HBB Solutions, commented: “We’ve become accustomed to weekly reports detailing the meteoric rates of house price growth that have been sweeping the country and it’s fair to say that homeowners have had a pretty good run of it.
“However, we’re now seeing signs that cracks are starting to appear, with the rate of house price growth starting to ease. Of course, this is simply a topline view and one that doesn’t provide a realistic picture of the market at a more granular level.
“So while some homeowners have benefitted from a sharp increase in the value of their home since the start of this year, others have not been so fortunate. In fact, in some areas of the market, the average value of a home has been reducing by thousands of pounds a month since the start of the year.”
