Britain’s ‘new towns’ where house prices have surged in the last 10 years
Milton Keynes - which is 50 years old - is the best-performing new town for property price growth over the past 30 years
HOUSE prices in Britain's newest towns have outperformed the national average over the past decade, according to a new report.
Milton Keynes, which is celebrating its 50th birthday, was identified as the best-performing new town for property price growth over the past 30 years.
New towns generally have seen house prices increase by nearly a third over the past 10 years, increasing by just over £55,500, from £173,337 in 2006 to £228,902 in 2016.
House prices across Britain generally have increased by just over a quarter over the past 10 years, from £200,059 to £251,679 - an increase of around £51,600.
Halifax said that since 1986, property prices in Milton Keynes have surged by 601 per cent to reach £309,415 on average, making it Britain's top-performing new town over the past three decades.
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Telford, Corby, Warrington and Skelmersdale were the new towns with the next strongest percentage increases in house price growth between 1986 and 2016.
Many of the new towns with the strongest house price growth over the past 10 years are in the London commuter belt, with prices in Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead seeing particularly strong gains since 1986, the report said.
New towns were created in waves after the Second World War, generally emerging between the 1940s and 1960s and helping to alleviate housing shortages following the war.
NEW TOWN GROWTH
Here is how average house prices across Britain's new towns have increased between 1986 and 2016, according to Halifax, with the average house price in 2016 followed by the percentage increase:
- Milton Keynes, South East, £309,415, 601%
- Telford, West Midlands, £178,568, 586%
- Corby, East Midlands, £173,633, 561%
- Warrington, North West, £198,106, 559%
- Skelmersdale, North West, £138,466, 551%
- Northampton, East Midlands, £228,014, 544%
- Redditch, West Midlands, £210,149, 521%
- Welwyn Garden City, South East, £362,656, 508%
- Bracknell, South East, £365,874, 498%
- Peterborough, East Anglia, £200,589, 477%
- Hemel Hempstead, South East, £350,183, 472%
- Stevenage, South East, £297,238, 468%
- Peterlee, North East, £126,066, 464%
- Basildon, South East, £256,060, 462%
- Harlow, South East, £280,592, 461%
- Hatfield, South East, £370,960, 445%
- Washington, North East, £148,635, 438%
- Livingston, Scotland £161,184, 423%
- Newton Aycliffe, North East, £157,625, 418%
- Crawley, South East, £296,542, 410%
- East Kilbride, Scotland, £150,785, 406%
- Cumbernauld, Scotland, £127,764, 404%
- Runcorn, North West, £121,795, 391%
- Cwmbran, Wales, £159,294, 388%
- Glenrothes, Scotland, £114,583, 351%
- Irvine, Scotland, £122,469, 339%
Halifax, which used its own database, examined the house price performance of 26 of new towns to mark the milestone birthday of Milton Keynes.
Martin Ellis, a housing economist at Halifax, said: "Milton Keynes has been the best-performing of all the new towns created following the Second World War in terms of house price performance since 1986.
"Many of these new towns are within easy commuting distance of major commercial centres, where property is typically more expensive, particularly in the South East, where the average property price is well below that in London.
"This makes them a highly popular choice with home buyers, explaining their relatively good house price performance, and this popularity has been particularly notable during the last decade."
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