House buyers could save up to £50,000 by purchasing a property in a new town built after the Second World War compared to elsewhere in the UK, according to Halifax.
The lender says the average house price in a new town is £300,656, as opposed to a UK average of £346,995.
Over the past 30 years, Halifax says the average price of a property in a new town, such as Milton Keynes, has jumped by 441 per cent, slightly behind the average for the whole of the UK at 454 per cent.
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However, some new towns have seen significant property spikes. Crawley in West Sussex tops the list, with property prices surging by 543 per cent since 1994, from £63,712 to £409,836.
Craigavon in Northern Ireland is second, with the price of an average house increasing 524 per cent, from £31,189 to £194,560. And Hemel Hempstead is third with prices jumping from £70,502 to £436,986.
Halifax’s analysis includes areas built under the New Towns Act of 1946 and subsequent legislation.
Amanda Bryden, head of Halifax Mortgages, said: “New towns have played an important role over the years in helping to provide additional, affordable housing options across the UK.”
What is happening with house prices?
House prices jumped by 1.5% in August, bringing the annual growth rate to 2.8%, according to official figures.
The average price of a property in the UK now sits at £293,000, an £8,000 uplift compared to a year ago.
The Land Registry index, which differs from the way Haliax calculates prices, reveals that annual house price inflation was highest in the North West, where prices increased by 4.6% in the 12 months to August. The South West was the English region with the lowest annual inflation, where prices rose by just 0.8%. The
Jeremy Leaf, estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, says: “This most comprehensive of all house-price surveys, as it includes cash and mortgage transactions, demonstrates once again considerable market strength despite reflecting activity over the past three months at a time of economic and political turbulence.
Where have house prices risen the most?
The official house price index from the Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics reveals that of the four UK regions, values rose the fastest in Northern Ireland.
Average house prices in Northern Ireland jumped 6.4% over the past year to reach £185,000. This was followed by 5.4% growth in Scotland, with the average property now costing £200,000. In Wales, house prices rose 3.5% to reach £223,000. Meanwhile, in England prices increased 2.3% to £310,000.
In terms of English regions, the North West saw the fastest annual house price growth (4.6%), followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (4.4%), and then the West Midlands (2.6%).
The slowest house price inflation was seen in the South West (0.8%), followed by London at 1.4%. The average home in the capital now costs £531,212.