2010 is likely to be recorded as a very mixed year in the property market, one that beat many expectations in terms of house price stability but failed to excite anyone in terms of the volume of transactions as a result of the lack of available finance.
New figures from Zoopla.co.uk, show that the value of the average home in Britain grew by £4,978 over 2010 (£13.64 per day), up 2.36% from £210,846 last December to £215,824 today.
The overall gain for British property owners in 2010 was £130 billion, with the value of housing stock in Britain rising to £5.55 trillion, up from £5.42 trillion one year ago, still some £550 billion below its peak at the end of 2007.
Whilst the first half of this year showed strong growth in house prices, with the average home in Britain reaching a high of £219,106 in August, the market has since cooled with values falling back to £215,824 and giving up almost half the gains made since the beginning of the year.
Different parts of Britain have also shown a wide disparity over the year, with the average home in England gaining £6,483 (2.96%) over the year whilst property values have fallen in both Wales and Scotland by £5,438 (3.42%) and £2,898 (1.79%) respectively.
Homeowners in Rutland, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire have most to celebrate this year having all seen average property prices increase by over 7% in 2010. At the other end of the scale, it has not been a good year for homeowners in South Lanarkshire, Lincolnshire or West Yorkshire where average house prices have fallen by over 2.5% during 2010.
Nicholas Leeming, Commercial Director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: “We saw a fast run up in house prices during the first part of the year propelled by a shortage of supply. And the increases seen in England have been very skewed towards London and the South. Whilst the market has cooled a bit over the last half of the year, an extra £5,000 on the value of the average British home is good news and defies many predictions made at the start of the year
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