Telford seeing great growth in house prices

House price growth in Britain's new towns has outperformed the national average over the past decade according to a new report.

Telford has been named among the top five new towns for house price increase from 1986 to 2016, according to new figures that were released yesterday.

Telford, Corby, Warrington and Skelmersdale were the new towns with the second strongest percentage increases in house price growth, after Milton Keynes.

The data has been put together by the bank Halifax from its own figures to mark the 50th birthday of Milton Keynes.

In it, it found that the town had been the best-performing new town for property price growth over the past 30 years.

The report also found that new towns generally have seen house prices increase by 32 per cent over the past decade.

They have risen by just over £55,500 in total, going up from £173,337 in 2006 to £228,902 in 2016.

House prices in general across the country have only increased by 26 per cent in the same time period.

Halifax said that since 1986, property prices in Milton Keynes have surged by 601 per cent to reach £309,415 on average.

Many of the new towns with the strongest house price growth over the past 10 years are in the London commuter belt.

Prices in Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead are seeing particularly strong gains since 1986, the report said.

Martin Ellis, a housing economist at Halifax, said: "Milton Keynes has been the best-performing of all the new towns created following the Second World War in terms of house price performance since 1986.

"Many of these new towns are within easy commuting distance of major commercial centres, where property is typically more expensive, particularly in the South East, where the average property price is well below that in London.

"This makes them a highly popular choice with home buyers, explaining their relatively good house price performance, and this popularity has been particularly notable during the last decade."