Borough is leading London mini-boom
Property prices in Hammersmith and Fulham have shot up by 22% over the last year, leading a London mini-boom, according to the latest Nationwide House Price Index.
The index found that an average home in London is now £280,791, up 15.7% on this month last year.
In Hammersmith and Fulham however, the average home price is £497,746, up 22% on last year.
Nationwide says this price growth is the strongest in the country, and adds that Hammersmith and Fulham is now the third most expensive borough in London, and has benefited from a below average increase in unemployment over the past year.
Prices were also up in the first quarter of 2010, compared with the previous quarter. In London overall the rise was 2.5% while in Hammersmith and Fulham they were up by 7%.
By comparison, the national quarterly increase was just 1.6%, taking the country's average house price to £182,667.
Martin Gabhauer, Nationwide's Chief Economist says: " London has more acute supply shortages in housing stock than elsewhere, providing a support to prices. Overseas demand is also more significant in London’s property market than elsewhere in the country and will have benefited from the fall in sterling, which has made investing in UK property more attractive.
"More recently, the recovery in the financial sector is also likely to have boosted demand for property in the capital.
" Over the past five years, house prices in London have risen by 20%, whilst those in the rest of the UK have risen by just 5% on average. However, as a result of this, affordability has worsened in London whilst it has improved in other parts of the country.
" London’s house price to earnings ratio rose from 6.9 in the first quarter of 2005 to 7.1 in the same period in 2010, whilst the UK average fell from 5.8 to 5.3 over the same period."
The survey also revealed that over the last ten years, house prices in London have risen by between 81% and 151%. Prices in Hammersmith and Fulham fell somewhere in the middle, growing by 96%.
March 31, 2010
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