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House prices keep growing after election

UK house price growth has remained steady since the election, growing by 5.1% in the year to July 2017, according to official statistics.

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House prices keep growing after election

This figure was unchanged from the year to June 2017, when the Conservatives unexpectedly lost their majority, leading to some predictions of a shock to the housing market.

This, it seems, has failed to materialise, with property transactions increasing by 1.3% on the previous month and transactions on properties worth more than £40,000 increasing by 8.3% compared to July 2016.

House price growth in London, however, remained relatively sluggish, rising to 2.8%, still well below the UK average.

Prices in the South East of England actually fell by 0.4% in the past month, though the annual change in the region was still positive, at 3.8%.

Research into the figures by Yorkshire Building Society suggested that the gap between the least and most affordable parts of Britain has almost doubled since the financial crash 10 years ago.

In areas including Edinburgh, Birmingham and Leeds, homes are more affordable thanks to wages increasing faster than property prices, the report found. In London and the South of England, however, homes are far less affordable.


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Andrew McPhillips, chief economist at Yorkshire Building Society, said: “Unsurprisingly, the data shows that there is a distinct divide between the north and south of the country when it comes to housing affordability, but this has become even more pronounced since the financial crash.”

Data analysis in June by Inside Housing found that areas where house prices had increased more significantly were more likely to swing from the Conservatives to Labour in the general election, and the first results since that election suggested that that trend could continue.

Areas such as Hastings and Bury – where the Conservatives held seats but Labour recorded large increases in their vote share – saw huge increases in house prices, even since the election. The average house in Hastings now costs £206,057.

Kensington and Chelsea, a surprise gain for Labour in June, remained the most expensive area of the UK by some distance and bucked the London trend of slowing growth. The average price of a property there has risen by 13% in the past year to a figure of £1,392,424.

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