News - House Prices

House prices in the UK rose by just over 25% during 2002 - the equivalent of Ł65 a day, according to figures from Nationwide Building Society. In terms of local authorities Selby topped the growth league with house prices soaring by 66% during 2002, followed by Blyth Valley in Northumberland with growth of 63%.

It says strong UK growth continued in December with the average cost of a home increasing by 1.7% to Ł117,206.

The building society is predicting house prices will rise by 10% during the next 12 months.

But it believes it's "highly likely" that certain pockets of London and other hotspots will see price falls, even though some regions could see the cost of property surge ahead by 15%

It has also highlighted 20 areas which it thinks are vulnerable to either a sharp reduction in price growth or price falls. At the top of the table are Haringey, Wandsworth and Hammersmith and Fulham, all in London, and overall London boroughs account for 15 of the 20 areas.

Outside the capital, Nationwide picks out Oxford, Exeter, Thurrock and Slough as vulnerable to a sharp slowdown in house price inflation.

But it is not expecting prices to crash like they did in the early 1990s unless there was a marked change in confidence.

During 2002 the strong price growth seen in London and the South East in previous years continued to "ripple out" to the rest of the country.

Yorkshire and Humberside saw the strongest overall rise with house prices 35% higher during the final quarter of 2002 than for the same period the previous year.

In the South West prices were up 31% year-on-year, while in the West Midlands and East Anglia they were up 30% and 29% respectively. But at the over end of the spectrum the cost of property rose by just 16% during the year in Scotland and Northern Ireland and only 21% in London. Nationwide expects prices in the capital to grow by just 5% during the coming 12 months, while in the North it expects rises of around 15% and Wales is also set to see strong