2014's house price winners and losers

The London Borough of Greenwich has seen the biggest rise in property prices in the UK this year, according to figures from Halifax.

Data from the lender’s monthly House Price Index revealed the average price of a home in the borough has shot up 24.6% over the last year, from £263,183 in 2013 to £328,044 in 2014.

Halifax says this pace significantly outstrips the growth of house prices in London as a whole, which saw rises averaging 13% over the same period.

On average property prices in the UK grew 8.5%, from £193,087 to £209,428.

Towns with the biggest growth in house prices

Here are the top ten towns that saw the biggest growth in average house prices between 2013 and 2014.

Source: Halifax

*12 months to November

Crawley in Sussex is the only area outside London that made the top ten. It saw the third largest rise (22.4%) in average property prices, growing from £218,844 to £267,925.

Halifax says Sheffield is the top performing area outside of the south, with prices rising by an average of 13.7% over the past year. The area has seen a significant increase in employment which may have been a key factor in boosting housing demand and therefore prices in the city.

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Towns with the biggest drop in house prices

Here the towns which saw the biggest drop in average house prices over the past year.

Source: Halifax

*12 months to November

Bury in Lancashire saw the most significant drop in the last year. Average house prices fell 4.8% from £147,407 to £140,376.

[SPOTLIGHT]Keighley in West Yorkshire (-4.4%) and Nuneaton in Warwickshire (-3.2%) recorded the second and third largest average property price falls.

Halifax highlighted that a number of the towns that saw price falls are still suffering from relatively weak employment conditions, which may have had an adverse impact on their local housing markets.

What other reports say

Zoopla, a property website, has also analysed its data from the past year to spot house price growth trends.

Unlike Halifax, which bases its figures on mortgage offers to borrowers, Zoopla uses asking prices to compile its stats.

However, Zoopla’s figures largely correspond with Halifax as it finds the value of property in the UK has grown 6% in the past year, taking the average price of a property to £268,895.

It also finds London is the best performing area, with house price growth up 15.6% over the year taking average prices from £522,105 to £603,724.

Zoopla also reports growth in the UK was very uneven, with the south experiencing bigger increases than the north.

Its data shows Bradford experienced the worst growth, with average property prices rising just 0.8% over the past year from £118,396 to £119,374.

Regionally Yorkshire & the Humber was the only area that saw a drop according to Zoopla with average property prices dropping 1.6% from £158,071 to £155,628.

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