Last year the highest house price rise was for the city of York increasing 23% and adding almost £70,000 in value for the average home.

For towns and cities with the highest growth average house prices increased £50,237 rising 15.2% during 2022, according to Halifax.

The cathedral city of York in Yorkshire and The Humber had the strongest rise of 23.1% over the year with average property values rising £69,648 over the year.

Since March 2020 house prices in York have increased by 41.9% from £261,183 to £370,639 or a rise in value of £109,457.

These rising house prices offer older homeowners the opportunity to release equity from their home to repay an existing mortgage or improve the quality of life at a time of rising inflation.

All leading towns outside of London

No London boroughs made it to the top twenty locations with the highest house price rise with an average rise of only 7.2% although property values remain the highest in the country averaging £596,667.

This table from Halifax shows the top ten towns with the biggest change and average house prices in the last year to 2022.

Town	House prices	Value added	Chamge
York	£370,639	£69,648	23.1%
Woking	£586,925	£93,626	19.0%
Swansea	£265,379	£39,450	17.5%
Chelmsford	£485,770	£69,775	16.8%
Kettering	£326,895	£44,731	15.9%
Derby	£239,538	£37,953	15.8%
Wellingborough	£306,985	£41,087	15.5%
Peterborough	£289,994	£37,599	14.9%
Bristol	£394,126	£50,864	14.8%
Cambridge	£531,730	£68,586	14.8%
Brentwood	£533,327	£66,998	14.4%

The biggest rise by value is Woking in the South East increasing £93,626 over the year with house prices rising from £493,299 in 2021 to £586,925.

Most areas in the UK benefited from strong rise in house prices after many years with stagnant growth and very few towns and cities are located in the South East.

Parents can access cash for a specific reason using equity release and use this to gift to children and grandchildren as a deposit on their first property.

See how much you can release from your home using equity release and the interest rate using this link:
Free equity release calculator with instant figures for your property.

Biggest house price rise on record

Over the past few years house prices have increased by the biggest amounts on record in the UK with average prices up 26% or £80,777 from March 2020 to November 2022.

From the top twenty towns and cities Swansea in Wales has seen house prices up an average 47.8% or £85,846 in the last two years and York up 41.9% or £109,457.

The biggest rise over two years by value is Hove in the South East with £121,325 rising 30.0%, Cheltenham in the South West gained £109,990 up 37.1% and Woking gained £106,422 up 22.1%.

These commuter towns have been popular since the pandemic as homeowners sought larger homes offering better value than London and so demand has been particularly strong in these areas.

It is possible for older homeowners looking at relocating and buying a new property for a better quality of life to use a lifetime mortgage if they need more capital to buy their dream home.

What are your next steps?

Speak to our London City Mortgage advisers if you are releasing equity to buy a dream home, we can manage the application through to provider valuation and offer.

Find out more about the leading lifetime mortgage products when buying a new property using a with this link:
Free equity release quote with interest rates to buy your ideal home.

Our expert advisers can find products accessing cash to improve your quality of life. Learn more by using the equity release calculator, property value tracker chart and mortgage costs calculator.