Commuter towns dotted around major cities saw some of the biggest house price rises in 2022, according to new data from Halifax.
However, it was York that saw the strongest house price inflation across England and Wales over the past year, according to their findings.
House prices in city have soared by 23.1%, or £69,648 on average, in 2022.
Woking, a popular commuter town in Surrey with good transport links to London, recorded the biggest average house price increase of any town or city in cash terms over the past 12 months.
In 2021 a home in Woking cost £493,299 on average, with houses prices now coming in at £586,925 at the end of the 2022 – an eye-watering increase of £93,626 or 19.0%.
Meanwhile in Wales, its second-largest city Swansea recorded the highest rate of house price growth, with prices rising by 17.5% or £39,450 per year.
Kim Kinnaird, the mortgages director at Halifax, said: “Overall, 2022 was another year of rapid house price growth for most areas in the UK. And unlike many years in the past, the list isn’t dominated by towns and cities in the south-east.
“Nowhere is that more the case than in York, which saw the highest property price inflation across England and Wales this year, rising by over a fifth.
“While London still has some of the highest property prices in the country, it recorded comparatively modest house price inflation over the past 12 months. This is partly due to pandemic-driven shifts in housing preferences as buyers sought bigger properties further from urban centres.
“We can see this clearly in commuter towns such as Woking, Chelmsford and Hove, which – with their more diverse range of properties perhaps offering better value – recorded much bigger increases over the last year.”
20 UK towns and cities with the highest house price increases in 2022
1. York, £370,639, £69,648, 23.1%
2. Woking, £586,925, £93,626, 19.0%
3. Swansea, £265,379, £39,450, 17.5%
4. Chelmsford, £485,770, £69,775, 16.8%
5. Kettering, £326,895, £44,731, 15.9%
6. Derby, £277,491, £37,953, 15.8%
7. Wellingborough, £306,985, £41,087, 15.5%
8. Peterborough, £289,994, £37,599, 14.9%
9. Bristol, £394,126, £50,864, 14.8%
10. Cambridge, £531,730, £68,586, 14.8%
11. Brentwood, £533,327, £66,998, 14.4%
12. Bournemouth, £365,148, £45,559, 14.3%
13. Hove, £526,201, £65,255, 14.2%
14. Colchester, £377,003, £46,208, 14.0%
15. Birmingham, £269,385, £32,563, 13.8%
16. Milton Keynes, £416,496, £49,594, 13.5%
17. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, £260,675, £30,157, 13.1%
19. Southampton, £316,286, £36,151, 12.9%
20. Cheltenham, £406,767, £45,972, 12.7%