How well do you remember 1999? Tony Blair was halfway through his first term as Prime Minister, the world was awaiting the potentially chaotic impact of the Millennium Bug, and The Blair Witch Project had become the most profitable film in cinema history.
Now, a leading price comparison site has looked at house prices in 1999 and compared them to the present day to find out where property values have risen the most (and the least) in the last 20 years.
Revealed: Where house prices have seen the biggest increases since 1999
Despite a dip in house values after the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, house prices have risen considerably over the last two decades. Now, research from Compare the Market has revealed where the property hotspots of the last 20 years have been.
The price comparison experts looked at Land Registry data to find out which local authority areas have experienced the biggest growth over the last 20 years.
Overall, the price comparison experts found that property prices have seen an average increase of 210% since 1999. But where are the hotspots?
In the last 20 years, the biggest rises in house prices have been in Bristol where values have increased by 365%. Back in the last 1990s the average property would have cost £59,746 whereas now you’d have to pay £278,103 for the average home.
The second most profitable property area is in Thanet, centred around the seaside town of Margate, where the average price has risen from £50,367 in 1999 to £233,089 today – an increase of more than £182,000.
In third place comes the city of Manchester where redevelopment has seen the average house price rise from £39,085 in the year that their United football team won the Treble, to £176,839 in the year their City team won a domestic quadruple.
Completing the top five are Southend-on-Sea with 348% growth and Brighton and Hove with 328% growth.
The biggest house price rises since 2009
As well as analysing the biggest house price rises since the end of the last century, the research also looked at which areas have performed best since the global financial crisis a decade ago.
Nestled to the east of Chelmsford, just 40 miles from London, Maldon has seen the highest property price growth in the country since 2009.
Well-known for its connections to the Saltmarsh Coast and for its rich maritime heritage, and home to the iconic Thames Sailing Barges, Maldon Sea Salt, Burnham Week and the Maldon Mud Race, property prices in this area have risen by 327% in the last 20 years, now reaching an average price of £260,286.
In second place comes the Worcestershire authority of Malvern Hills. Covering half of the area of the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, prices in the area have risen an exceptional 146% in the last ten years.
The old university city of Cambridge comes in third. The average price in the city has risen from £229,984 in 2009 to £431,542 today – an increase of almost 88%.
In fourth place nationally was London, but which areas of London have been the best place to buy in the last 20 years?
The biggest property price increases in London since 1999
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some London boroughs have seen exceptional price rises in the last 20 years. The data shows that six boroughs have seen prices rise by more than 400% in the last two decades, meaning that the price of an average home has more than quadrupled in this time.
In terms of price rises, the five best London boroughs are:
- Waltham Forest (a 455% rise in the average house price since 1999)
- Hackney (445%)
- City of London (442%)
- Newham (414%)
- Lewisham (408%)
The local areas that have seen the slowest house price growth
Nationally, there are always winners and losers when house price growth is compared. The Compare the Market research found that, across the UK, 12 local authority areas had seen a fall in the average house price over the last decade.
The authorities where house prices have fallen since 2009 are:
- Ards and North Down (-15.6%)
- Newry, Mourne and Down (-14.43%)
- Mid & East Antrim (-8.46%)
- Middlesbrough (-8.07%)
- County Durham (-4.46%)
- Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (-4.14%)
- Derry & Strabane (-2.03%)
- Antrim and Newtownabbey (-1.69%)
- Hartlepool (-1.5%)
- Causeway Coast and Glens (-1.12%)
- Lisburn and Castlereagh (-0.13%)
- Redcar and Cleveland (-0.02%)