House prices on the rise in Leeds as city defies national trend which has seen UK prices drop

House prices increased by 1.7 per cent in Leeds in January, new figures show.

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 11 per cent annual growth.

The average Leeds house price in January was £210,315, Land Registry figures show – a 1.7% increase on December.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across Yorkshire and The Humber, where prices decreased 1.4 per cent, and Leeds outperformed the 0.5 per cent drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Leeds rose by £21,000 – putting the area sixth among Yorkshire and The Humber’s 24 local authorities for annual growth.

Owners of semi-detached houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Leeds in January – they increased 2 per cent, to £225,488 on average.

Over the last year, prices rose by 11.5 per cent.

Detached homes saw a rise of 1.6 per cent, which is up 12.2 per cent annually.

The average detached house in Leeds is now £385, 113.

Terraced homes also saw a 1.6 per cent month increase, which equates to a eight per cent rise annually.

The average is now £172,290.

Flats saw a lower rise but prices were still up by one per cent monthly and eight per cent anunally.

On average, a flat in Leeds costs £142,520.

First-time buyers in Leeds spent an average of £179,000 on their property – £17,000 more than a year ago, and £41,000 more than in December 2015.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £250,000 on average in January – 39.5 per cent more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Leeds compare?

Buyers paid 17.3 per cent more than the average price in Yorkshire and The Humber (£179,000) in January for a property in Leeds.

Across Yorkshire and The Humber, property prices are lower than those across the UK, where the average cost £249,000.

The most expensive properties in Yorkshire and The Humber were in Harrogate – £306,000 on average, and 1.5 times as much as in Leeds.

Harrogate properties cost 2.6 times as much as homes in Hull (£119,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average January sale price of £1.3 million could buy 14 properties in Blaenau Gwent (average £93,000).

Factfile

Average property price in January

Leeds: £210,315

Yorkshire and The Humber: £179,248

UK: £249,309

Annual growth to January

Leeds: +11%

Yorkshire and The Humber: +8.9%

UK: +7.5%

Best and worst annual growth in Yorkshire and The Humber

Ryedale: +24.0%

Barnsley: +2.8%