Average house price in south west now £294,000: Report

Lender Nationwide says the region was the top performer in England, and was behind only Northern Ireland and Wales in the table.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said the average house price in the south west stood at £294,845 for the last quarter of 2021, a rise of £18,096 for the year.

Across the UK, the average house price according to Nationwide is now £253,113 - with London highest at £507,230 and north lowest, at £148,105.

“The South West was the strongest performing English region, with annual price growth of 11.5%, the largest calendar year increase in the region since 2004," Mr Gardner said.

“This was closely followed by the Outer South East, which saw annual price growth increase to 11.3%, from 9.8% the previous quarter. The Outer South East, which includes cities such as Brighton, Southampton and Oxford, was also one of the strongest English regions in 2021.

“London was again the weakest performer, with annual growth remaining at 4.2%. London was the only UK region to see lower annual price growth in 2021 than in 2020, as shown in the table below.

“The North West saw the strongest growth of the regions in northern England, with annual price growth of 11.2%, similar to the previous quarter."

The rises may be good news for homeowners, but for first-time buyers, it means more obstacles to getting on the housing ladder, Mr Gardner said, with those purchasing their first house having to be in the 80th percentile (top 20 per cent) of earners in order to fund a 20 per cent deposit, according to Nationwide's calculations.

Mr Gardner said: "In London, the South East and South West, affordability is (particularly) challenging, with the typical buyer now located in the 80th income percentile rather than the 60th percentile as was the case 10 years ago, signalling an even larger proportion of people priced out of the market or needing to borrow a greater multiple of their income in order to buy a home."