The Nationwide Quarterly Regional Review reports:
* House price growth accelerates in all UK regions in Q1
* House price rise in London outpaces UK for first time in four years
* Prices in Northern Ireland grow more than three and a half times as fast as UK average
* House prices grow least in Northern region at only a tenth of the UK rate
Commenting on the figures Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Group Economist, said: "House price growth in the UK accelerated into the first quarter of 2006. Prices increased by 2.3% since Q4 2005, the fastest quarterly increase since Q3 2004. Compared with the first quarter of 2005 prices are 4.9% higher, making the price of a typical house in the UK £160,319. The annual rate of house price growth increased in all of the UK regions in the first quarter, but the fastest growth was in Northern Ireland where prices rose by 17.6% - more than three and a half times faster than the UK average. The slowest growth was in the Northern region where prices increased by 0.5% to £123,483.
Over the last year house prices in Northern Ireland increased by a remarkable 17.6% - more than three and a half times the average rate of growth in the UK. The price of a typical house in the Province has now jumped above those in Scotland and the Northern region, and at £129,321 is no longer the cheapest place to buy in the UK.
The London market continued to show some signs of recovery in the first quarter with increases in the rate of growth of price on both an annual and quarterly basis. Prices in the capital increased by 2.2% in the quarter and 5% over the year. This is the first time in four years that the annual rate of growth of house prices in London was above the UK average. House price growth in the Outer South East and Outer Metropolitan regions also picked up in the first quarter, although growth here still remains below the UK average.
Prices in Yorkshire and Humberside and the North West are still rising strongly. In Yorkshire & Humberside annual house price inflation has been above the UK average for most of the last four years while the North West has also seen increases above the UK average for most of the last three.
The Northern, East and West Midlands, and East Anglia were the regions with the slowest annual growth in the first quarter, although the rate of growth was stronger than three months ago in each region. East Anglia however saw a slowing in the rate of growth over the last three months and was the only region in England where house price growth decelerated in the first quarter. The Northern region however, experienced the fastest rate of growth in England in the first three months of the year."
