London property market boom loses steam as it enters the new year
LONDON house prices finished 2014 growing more slowly than they had done earlier in the year, but still at rates far above the average for England and Wales.
The average price of a residential property in the capital was £464,936, according to figures released yesterday by the Land Registry.
The average London price was 16.3 per cent higher than in December 2013. This compares to seven per cent year-on-year growth in England and Wales where the average house price was £177,766 in December.
While London’s house price growth is still high, it is slower than the pace reached during the summer when year-on-year price growth hit 20 per cent.
“These figures show that as we start 2015, house prices are stabilising. The slower rate of growth compared to 2014 is a welcome development,”said Stephen Smith, a director at the Legal and General mortgage club – a mortgage broker.
Within Greater London, Waltham Forest was the borough with the largest year-on-year price gains at 25.1 per cent. Other boroughs that saw average house prices surpass 20 per cent growth were Southwark, Richmond upon Thames, Newham, Lewisham, Lambeth, Haringey, Ealing and Bromley.
In contrast, the smallest price rises were in Kensington and Chelsea where price growth was 11.5 per cent – still above the national average. However, Kensington and Chelsea remains the most expensive place to buy with an average price of £1,319,396. It is followed by the City of Westminster (£978,787), Camden (£798,980) and Hammersmith and Fulham (782,603).
The cheapest borough to buy in is Barking and Dagenham where the average price in December was £265,912. It was followed by Bexley (£279,061) and Newham (£291,856).