UK coastal towns led the property price surge in the 2000s, a new report shows

The noughties was a significant decade for the nation’s property markets, says the Halifax research. Despite a fall of more than a fifth between the middle of 2007 and the middle of 2009, property prices still increased by more in real terms than in any other decade over the last 50 years.
 
Overall property prices increased by 105% during the past decade, taking the UK average house price from £81,596 in the fourth quarter of 1999 to £167,020 in the same period in 2009.
 
It also shows that the national average price increased by 145% between the start of the 2000s and the peak of the market in the third quarter of 2007.This was followed by a 21% decline over the next seven quarters. Prices subsequently increased by 6% during the final two quarters of the decade. And property prices ended the 2000s at a level similar to that in third quarter of 2005.
 
A regional breakdown shows that Redruth in Cornwall recorded the biggest price rise during the decade at 207%.  Indeed three of the four towns that delivered the largest gains, Redruth, Penzance and Helston, are in Cornwall.
 
Wallasey in Merseyside saw prices increase by 172%, and Wallsend in Tyne and Wear experienced increases of 164%, making them the best performers in the north.
 
In the South East of the country Ramsgate prices grew by 181% and in Southend on Sea they increased by 160%, making these two towns the best in the region. All ten towns recording the fastest house price growth in the 2000s are on, or close to, the coast.
 
Greater London and the South East saw the smallest house price rises with growth of 80% and 85% respectively. This was the reverse of the previous decade. During the 1990s, London experienced the biggest prices rises on the UK mainland at 48%.
 
‘The noughties was a significant decade for house prices. Overall, prices increased considerably despite the marked decline towards the end of the decade. This contrasted sharply with the 1990s when prices rose only modestly in monetary terms and actually fell once retail price inflation is taken into account,’ said Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax.
 
‘The majority of towns that experienced the strongest price growth began the decade with lower than average property prices, which provided the platform for bigger price gains.  Seaside towns fared particularly well as the attraction of having a home on the coast helped to boost demand,’ he added.