The results also include a third Welsh town in eleventh place
Online property portal Rightmove has revealed a top 20 list of the UK’s property hotspots for 2021 – and two Welsh towns take first and second place.
Using data to find the biggest increase in average asking price, the results also include a third Welsh town in eleventh place.
It has been the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic having an impact on the housing market across Wales and Great Britain, with some areas seeing houses selling at quickly, supply of stock starting to dwindle and many buyers losing out to over-asking price offers.
Every region that Rightmove covers has hit record price growth this year and seven in 10 homes for sale on property portal finding a buyer.
A combination of sustained high demand, and shortage of properties for sale this year, has meant competition between buyers for the properties available has risen by more than a third during 2021 (36%).
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, says: This year has seen significant growth in average asking prices across so many areas of Great Britain. Strong competition for available properties, driven by low stock and high demand, has propped up asking prices throughout the year, and agents report having multiple bidders for available properties.
Rightmove’s most recent data states that in and around Mountain Ash, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, is this year’s overall UK property price hotspot, with average asking prices in the area jumping by 31% this year.
The average price for a home in Mountain Ash is £137,220, compared to £104,431 a year ago.
Porth, also in Rhondda Cynon Taf, is second on this year’s price hotspot list, where asking prices have risen by 26%, and Kirkby in Liverpool is third at 21%.
The Pembrokeshire town of Milford Haven appears at number 11 with an increase in average asking price in 2021 of 15%, taking the price from £147,758 to £170,248.
Further highlighting the popularity of properties in areas of Wales this year, Holyhead has topped the list of areas that have seen the biggest jump in sales agreed. The number of sales agreed in Holyhead has risen 58% compared to last year.
On a regional level, Wales tops the table as this year’s regional price hotspot. According to Rightmove, average asking prices are up 10.5% in Wales compared to last year, followed by the South West (+9.6%) and the South East (+9.1%).
On a county level, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) monthly data reports have seen Carmarthenshire, Vale of Glamorgan and Pembrokeshire regular visitors to near the top of the list for county average house price increases and Blaenau Gwent has continually been in the top five.
The latest ONS data shows Merthyr Tydfil has become the area in Wales with the highest increase in house prices from October 2020 to October 2021, with Blaenau Gwent in second and Rhondda Cynon Taf in sixth.
