House prices back to boom levels in only two places

Monday 20th February 2012

House prices have not recovered to 2007 boom levels anywhere in the UK apart from in just two local authority areas.

In Rochford, Essex, house prices are up 1% on boom levels, and in South Lakeland, in the North-West, they are up by just 0.1%.

Even in Islington – the best-performing London district to make the top 20 places which have done best since the end of the housing boom – house prices are still down by 0.1%.

Other places where house prices are now just only slightly down on 2007 are Hart in Hampshire and Spelthorne in Surrey (down 0.1% and 0.2% respectively).

All 20 of the best performers are in the south of England, apart from Aberdeenshire, where house prices have been held up by the oil industry.

The very worst performers are all in Northern Ireland, where some house prices are 53% below the boom, followed by Corby in the East Midlands, down 35%.

Three of the areas with the biggest house price falls in recent years are in Wales: Wrexham, Neath Port Talbot and Flintshire.

Halifax produced the data from its own lending tables.