Dreaming of a white Christmas? Biggest house price jumps since the last one revealed

A white Christmas is more of a myth than a reality, however, it does happen occasionally and lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has revealed where homeowners have seen the best and worst house price growth since the last one.

According to the Met Office, the last time we enjoyed a ‘widespread’ white Christmas was back in December 2010 with 83% of areas registering snow on the ground and 19% seeing actual snowfall on the day itself.

Benham and Reeves crunched the numbers using Land Registry data and found that since then, UK house prices have increased by 38.9%, increasing from an average of £168,703 to their current average of £243,370.

England has enjoyed the largest increase of all UK nations at 42.4%, while London has seen the largest regional growth (66.3%).

The capital, of course, accounts for the areas to have enjoyed the largest increase since snow last fell on Christmas day, with the City of London seeing the largest increase across the nation at 101.8%, very closely followed by Waltham Forest with an increase of 101.6%.

Other areas to have faired well in the capital are Hackney, Lewisham and Barking and Dagenham whilst outside of London, the largest increase has been in Slough (75.5%), Corby (71.6%), Harlow (70.1%) and Medway (67.7%).

Rather traditionally, Aberdeen has seen the worst house price performance since the last white Christmas with property values down -7.1%, joined by Inverclyde (-1.7%), with County Durham the only other area to register a negative change (-1.3%).

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented:

“We may all be dreaming of one, but the chances of a white Christmas are depressingly low in this day and age.

However, it’s encouraging to see that despite all the political and economic uncertainty that has been thrown at the UK property market over the last few years, house prices have grown in almost all areas of the UK since the last widespread white Christmas was recorded.

Although we probably won’t see snow this Christmas, this almost decade long stint of positive market momentum is unlikely to let up and we should see yet further upward growth gifted to UK homeowners this coming year.

Unless you live in Aberdeen, Inverclyde or County Durham, all of which seem to be well and truly on the property naughty list.”