UK house prices up fastest in Armagh

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Friday, February 01, 2008

By Helen Carson

County Armagh has had the fastest rate of house price growth in the UK in the past 10 years at a whopping leap of 331%, according to Halifax.

The latest figures from the Halifax show the county, famous for its Cathedral city and the Armagh Planetarium, has outstripped places like Carmarthenshire in Wales, the Isle of Anglesey and Cornwall.

Despite Co Armagh's spiralling house price growth, though the average house price here is £220,229, making it more affordable than some other parts of the province, including counties Antrim and Down.

The survey also reported five out of the top 10 UK counties for house price growth are in Northern Ireland with the top three slots going to Armagh, Tyrone and Antrim respectively. These are followed by Co Down in fifth place with Londonderry at number nine.

And in terms of house price the most expensive property is to be found in Surrey where you would expect to pay £364,115 on average. New entries into the costliest homes hot-list in the past decade are East Sussex with an average price of £262,048, followed by Co Down - the only county outside the south east of England to make it into the top 10 - a house here has an average price of £253,734.

The latest findings put Northern Ireland as one of the most expensive regions in the UK outside London and the South East at the end of 2007. Two years ago, only Scotland had a lower average price than the province, according to the survey.

The sharp price rises here were attributed to a combination of a strong local economy, high levels of immigration and a big demand for properties from second home-buyers and buy-to-let investors in the Republic of Ireland.

Martin Ellis, chief economist, said: "The counties recording the best house price performance over the past 10 years have mainly been outside southern England. Four of the five counties with the highest house price growth are in Northern Ireland reflecting the strength of the housing market there over the past few years."

The report showed all UK counties have seen, at least, a doubling in prices since 1997 with house values in more than four in 10 counties trebled or more.

There are now only 20 counties in the UK with an average house price below £150,000 - 10 years ago every county was below this figure.