Property values rise in new university towns
Tuesday, 16 August 2011 12:09 PM
Over the past decade, average house prices in 'new' university towns have increased by 70 per cent, according to new research released today.
Property values in towns where universities have been established since 1960 have jumped from £91,612 to £155,953, according to data revealed by Lloyds TSB.
Average house price growth in older university towns rose by a more modest average of 64 per cent.
Both new and old university towns recorded higher average price increases than the average increase across the UK as a whole, which was 62 per cent.
More than two-thirds of all university towns recorded house price increases in excess of the UK average, the research said.
Bangor in Wales recorded the biggest increase (129 per cent), while prices in Carlisle, Sunderland, Dundee, Pontypridd, Bradford and Plymouth more than doubled.
The most expensive new university town – and also the most expensive of all university towns – was Winchester, with an average house price of £364,667. The least expensive was Salford with an average price of £106,685.
Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Lloyds TSB, said: "Growing student numbers are likely to have had a positive impact on house prices in university towns over the past decade.
“This effect has been heightened in the newer university towns where prices have, on average, risen more rapidly than in the towns that host the more established universities.”
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