Historic towns home to a higher rate of house price growth

England’s historic towns and cities are home to a higher rate of house price growth compared to ‘new’ towns created post 1946.

That’s according to research by estate and lettings agent, Barrows and Forrester, who analysed property market data over the last year across 15 historic pockets of the property market and 15 to have been created in recent times.

The research shows that the average property price across these historic bricks and mortar markets have climbed by 9.4% in the last year, with the average house price currently at £251,841.

As many as eight of these locations have seen annual house price growth breach the double-digit threshold over the last year. Durham is the historic area to have enjoyed the biggest jump in property prices, up 16% in the last 12 months.

Exeter has also seen a notable rate of annual growth at 14%, with Oxford (12%), Lancaster (12%), Canterbury (11%), Bath (10%), Salisbury (10%) and Lincoln (10%) also leading the charge.

Norwich has seen the lowest rate of historic town house price appreciation, but even still, prices have climbed 3% in the last 12 months.

In contrast, the 15 towns that have been created in the last 75 years have seen an average annual rate of growth of just 5.1%. At £269,179 on average, the cost of buying in a ‘new’ town is also 7% higher than when compared to the current average across the historic property market.

Runcorn (14%) is the only ‘new’ location analysed by Barrows and Forrester where house prices have climbed by more than 10%, although Warrington (9.8%) and Telford (9%) aren’t too far off the mark.

Welwyn Garden City has seen house prices remain almost static at 0.1%, with Crawley also seeing a very low level of annual growth (0.5%).

Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, James Forrester, commented:

“We’re incredibly lucky to live in a country that’s steeped in such a rich history and as a result, we have some beautiful historic towns and cities in all areas of the property market. There are also plenty that have been formed fairly recently due to a sharp uplift in the population and the requirement for more homes and it’s interesting to see how the two differ where property values are concerned.

Of course newer towns, with newer housing stock are likely to command a higher price in general, but our research shows that historic towns have been largely preferred over the last year, at least, with house prices climbing at a far greater rate.”

Data sourced from the Land Registry House Price Index (UK HPI) using the latest available data.
Category of town	Location	Average House Price (March 2020)	Average House Price (March 2021)	Annual change £	Annual change %
Historic	Durham	£100,268	£115,825	£15,558	15.5%
Historic	Exeter	£261,203	£296,636	£35,433	13.6%
Historic	Oxford	£404,562	£452,297	£47,735	11.8%
Historic	Lancaster	£155,185	£173,419	£18,235	11.8%
Historic	Canterbury	£296,522	£328,203	£31,681	10.7%
Historic	Bath	£338,787	£373,348	£34,561	10.2%
Historic	Salisbury	£269,789	£297,154	£27,366	10.1%
Historic	Lincoln	£155,913	£171,574	£15,661	10.0%
Historic	Carlisle	£132,179	£145,202	£13,023	9.9%
Historic	Ipswich	£191,689	£207,519	£15,830	8.3%
Historic	Shrewsbury	£217,404	£234,225	£16,821	7.7%
Historic	Colchester	£258,158	£275,593	£17,435	6.8%
Historic	York	£257,829	£274,112	£16,283	6.3%
Historic	Chester	£207,713	£219,869	£12,156	5.9%
Historic	Norwich	£206,321	£212,636	£6,316	3.1%
Historic average		£230,235	£251,841	£21,606	9.4%
Category of town	Location	AveHP - March 2020	AveHP - March 2021	Annual change £	Annual change %
New - post 1946	Runcorn	£139,733	£160,524	£20,791	14.9%
New - post 1946	Warrington	£197,400	£216,810	£19,409	9.8%
New - post 1946	Telford	£174,293	£190,055	£15,763	9.0%
New - post 1946	Corby	£186,810	£200,963	£14,153	7.6%
New - post 1946	Northampton	£210,859	£225,681	£14,822	7.0%
New - post 1946	Hemel Hempstead	£402,705	£428,422	£25,716	6.4%
New - post 1946	Bracknell	£330,824	£350,644	£19,820	6.0%
New - post 1946	Peterborough	£193,346	£203,886	£10,539	5.5%
New - post 1946	Milton Keynes	£261,303	£274,840	£13,537	5.2%
New - post 1946	Basildon	£309,499	£324,039	£14,540	4.7%
New - post 1947	Redditch	£208,726	£218,158	£9,432	4.5%
New - post 1946	Stevenage	£282,394	£291,420	£9,025	3.2%
New - post 1946	Harlow	£268,366	£275,743	£7,376	2.7%
New - post 1946	Crawley	£279,051	£280,490	£1,439	0.5%
New - post 1946	Welwyn Garden City	£395,563	£396,011	£448	0.1%
New average		£256,058	£269,179	£13,121	5.1%