Index shows Portsmouth's house prices are on the up

The index, released yesterday, reported an unseasonal acceleration in house price growth across all UK cities in the last three months.

Overall, house price inflation in UK cities increased to 11 per cent in February, up from 8.1 per cent a year ago, the highest annual rate of growth for almost 18 months.

Portsmouth, Nottingham and Birmingham recorded the highest rate of annual house price growth for over 10 years.

Richard Donnell, insight director at Hometrack, said: ‘There’s been a notable and unseasonal acceleration in city level house price growth in the last three months.

‘Sixteen of the 20 cities covered by our index are registering an annual rate of house price growth that is higher than 12 months ago.

‘As the housing recovery spreads, some regional cities are recording their highest growth rates for over a decade.’

However, he said there were early signs of a slowdown in the double-digit growth cities of London, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. For more go to hometrack.com.