Nationwide: North of England leads charge on house price growth

Growth slowed in all regions except the North of England according to new index.

Annual house price growth has slowed in all regions of the UK apart from the North of England during the first three months of 2015.

That’s according to new figures from the Nationwide Hose Price Index.

Across the UK as a whole, prices rose by 0.6% between January and March 2015 but annual house price growth slowed to 5.9% during the quarter compared to 8.9% in Q4 2014.

The average UK house price now stands at £188,566 according to Nationwide.

Here's how the different regions performed over the quarter:

Region	Average price	Quarterly % change (Q1 2015)
North	£125,299	2.5%
Outer Metropolitan	£306,931	2.3%
East Midlands	£158,575	1.9%
East Anglia	£193,772	1.1%
Outer South East	£235,747	1.1%
London	£408,780	1%
Northern Ireland	£121,052	0.2%
South West	£209,585	0.2%
North West	£144,145	0%
Yorks & Humberside	£141,647	0%
West Midlands	£161,989	-0.1%
Wales	£139,171	-0.5%
Scotland	£140,180	-0.6%

Source: Nationwide

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Regional shifts

You can see how prices have changed across all the regions of the UK over the last two quarters in the table below.

Region	Average price (Q1 2015)	Annual % change (Q1 2015)	Annual % change (Q4 2014)
London	£408,780	12.7%	17.8%
Outer Metropolitan	£306,931	12%	12.7%
Outer South East	£235,747	8.4%	10.6%
East Anglia	£193,772	7.8%	9.8%
East Midlands	£158,575	5.9%	6%
Northern Ireland	£121,052	5.7%	8.1%
South West	£209,585	5.7%	8%
West Midlands	£161,989	4.7%	6.8%
North	£125,299	4.7%	4%
North West	£144,145	2%	3.8%
Yorks & Humberside	£141,647	1.3%	1.5%
Scotland	£140,180	1.3%	4.2%
Wales	£139,171	-0.5%	1.4%

Source: Nationwide

As you can see the North of England was the only region in the UK to experience an increase in the rate of annual house price growth, compared to the previous quarter.

[SPOTLIGHT]Though London remained the strongest performing region with average annual prices up 12.7% year-on-year, it saw the biggest slowdown with growth down from 17.8% in Q4 2014.

Yorkshire and Humber was the weakest performing English region with prices up 1.3%. But Wales had the weakest annual price change overall as the only region to see a fall in average prices, down 0.5% compared to Q4 2014.

Best and worst performing towns and cities

Here are the best performing cities and town across the UK according to Nationwide’s data.

Rank	Town/city	Annual % change	Average price
1	St Albans	22%	3498,957
2	Reading	19%	£325,176
3	Oxford	13%	£407,136
4	London	13%*	£450,125*
5	Brighton	13%	£404,032

*figures adjusted to allow direct comparison

And here are the worst.

Rank	Town/city	Annual % change	Average price
1	Manchester	-1%	£211,571
2	Bradford	0%	£164,185
3	Plymouth	3%	£183,424
4	Leicester	3%	£175,121
5	Cardiff	3%	£221,581

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