The latest figures from leading property information website Zoopla.co.uk, show that the value of the average home in Britain grew by £4,978 over 2010 (£13.64 per day), up 2.36% from £210,846 last December to £215,824 today.
The overall gain for British property owners in 2010 was £130 billion, with the value of housing stock in Britain rising to £5.55 trillion, up from £5.42 trillion one year ago, still some £550 billion below its peak at the end of 2007.
While the first half of this year showed strong growth in house prices, with the average home in Britain reaching a high of £219,106 in August, the market has since cooled with values falling back to £215,824 and giving up almost half the gains made since the beginning of the year.
Different parts of Britain have also shown a wide disparity over the year, with the average home in England gaining £6,483 (2.96%) over the year whilst property values have fallen in both Wales and Scotland by £5,438 (3.42%) and £2,898 (1.79%) respectively.
Homeowners in Rutland, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire have most to celebrate this year having all seen average property prices increase by over 7% in 2010. At the other end of the scale, it has not been a good year for homeowners in South Lanarkshire, Lincolnshire or West Yorkshire where average house prices have fallen by over 2.5% during 2010.
Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: “We saw a fast run up in house prices during the first part of the year propelled by a shortage of supply. And the increases seen in England have been very skewed towards London and the South.
“Whilst the market has cooled a bit over the last half of the year, an extra £5,000 on the value of the average British home is good news and defies many predictions made at the start of the year.”
