New high is reached for Portsmouth property prices

Property prices in Portsmouth rose in the past year

Despite the figures, research by analysis firm Hometrack shows that transactions actually decreased slightly and were down 0.3 per cent on the previous year.

But Portsmouth is still cheaper than most other places, as the national average city house price climbed to £231,700 in the 12 months to January.

Hometrack‘s insight director Richard Donnell said he expected demand to slow down this year after several good years of growth.

He said: ‘High housing and moving costs are limiting access to the market for a growing number of households which, in our view, will result in lower turnover and slower house price  growth.’

But Janet Watts, property director from Havant-based YesCanDo Property, said she expected demand to remain strong in Portsmouth, especially in the buy-to-let market.

She said: ‘We haven’t had any properties in Portsmouth stay on our books for very long.

‘If properties are priced correctly there’s no reason why the market should slow down.’