219% house-price boost for wealthy areas

Homeowners in the ten areas with the highest growth rates in terms of economic activity per person - including Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and Glasgow, Cornwall, Belfast and Liverpool - have seen the value of their property nearly quadruple between 1998 and 2008, the Halifax said.

The average house price in the ten most prosperous areas, which also included a region taking in Inverness, Nairn, Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey, rose by 219 per cent over the period to 214,162.

The average price in the ten least prosperous regions - which include East and North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Blackpool -rose by 195 per cent to 165,430.

Suren Thiru, housing economist at Halifax, said: "Unsurprisingly, house price growth over the past decade has been stronger in the areas that have seen the biggest increases in economic activity.

"The north-south divide that has opened up recently with the general outperformance of the housing market in southern England appears to reflect the stronger economic performance of these regions."

The average house price in the ten areas with the highest levels of economic activity in 2008 is 61 per cent higher than the average in the ten locations with the lowest levels of activity, the survey found.

Furthermore, the survey found house prices had fared better in the most economically resilient locations since 2008, during the market downturn.

House prices had fallen on average by 24 per cent, Halifax said, in the ten areas with the biggest falls in economic activity since 2008 - which include Falkirk, Kingston upon Hull, Belfast and Blackpool. This is almost double the average 13 per cent decline in house prices in the ten areas that recorded the smallest falls in economic activity since 2008 - including Oxfordshire, Dorset and Cambridgeshire.

Seven of the ten local areas that have seen the smallest falls in economic activity over the last three years are in southern England.

In contrast, all ten locations that have recorded the largest falls in economic activity are in the northern regions of the UK.

Inner East London saw biggest gain in economic activity - and an increase of 236 per cent in house prices between 1998 and 2008.

But there have been mixed fortunes for previous top economic performers since 2008, the survey said

Belfast recorded both the third biggest gain in economic activity and the largest rise in house prices in the decade to 2008, but saw house prices fall by 46 per cent over the next three years as the Northern Ireland capital recorded the second largest contraction in economic activity across the UK over the same period.