Rural property hotspots outperform cities by a country mile

New research suggests there’s a clear split between England’s rural and urban areas when it comes to the price performance over the past 12 months, with the countryside very much outperforming the city.
 
Online agency Yopa has split England’s Local Authority districts into two categories - those classed as ‘Predominantly Rural’ and those ‘Predominantly Urban’.

It has then analysed the past year of house price growth in each to understand how price performance differs between England’s countryside and built-up areas.
 
The research reveals that in England’s predominantly rural areas, the average house price has seen a marginal increase of 1% over the last 12 months, and currently stands at £301,122.
 
While this is relatively modest growth, it’s significantly better than the performance of the nation’s predominantly urban areas which have seen prices drop by an average of -2.1% to sit at an average of £293,646.
 
Further insight reveals that 65% of England’s rural areas have seen prices  increase or remain flat over the past year, while 64% of urban areas have seen prices fall.

The best performances across rural areas has been led by East Cambridgeshire where prices have boomed to the tune of 10.6% and currently stand at an average of £355,330.
 
Northumberland has also performed well with growth of 7.5%, followed by Malvern Hills (7.1%), Ribble Valley (7%), West Devon (6.3%), West Oxfordshire (6%), East Devon (5.6%), Stratford-on-Avon (5%), Rutland (4.6%), and South Hams (4.4%).
 
As for urban areas, some parts of England have seen price drops that dwarf the -2.1% average decline.
 
London’s priciest markets have seen the nation’s biggest price drops, led by the City of London (-22.2%), Hammersmith & Fulham (-21%), Westminster (-20.9%), Camden (-20.8%), and Kensington & Chelsea (-13.6%).
 
Outside of the capital, the biggest drops have been recorded in Canterbury (-12.1%), Epsom & Ewell (-10.5%), and Gosport (-10.1%).
 
However, some urban areas have managed good annual growth, including Blaby (9.3%), North East Lincolnshire (8.3%), and Rugby (7.6%).