Recently the Halifax announced the top 10 performing towns across the UK for house price growth last year and in 3rd place was Dunstable with a 17.9% price rise in 2016. This is quite a remarkable feat considering Dunstable has no mainline station and in the past has been written off by Mary Portas and an article in the Daily Mail highlighting the number of closed shops in the town. The top performing town in the report with a 19.4% price rise in 2016 was our neighbour Luton.
The 10 areas with the highest house price rises over the last year were all in London or the South-east of England, with Barking and Dagenham, Basildon, Tower Hamlets and Watford also on the list.
At the other end of the spectrum, Aberdeen , Bangor in Northern Ireland, Inverness in Scotland and Blackpool in the North-west of England were also identified among the places with the weakest house price.
With the Dunstable’s close proximity to London where house prices have become unaffordable to many there is no surprise that buyers and renters are looking outside of the capital for accommodation. The towns closer to London such as St Albans, Hemel Hempstead and Watford have all seen very high price rises during the last 10 years making these unaffordable therefore making Dunstable an affordable choice whilst still close enough to London to commute or use the easy access to the M1.
