Housing markets across southern England, including London, are expected to see lower price growth as they continue to adjust to the dual impacts of higher mortgage rates and higher property taxes.

For its report, Zoopla assessed a range of key housing market indicators, including the affordability of homes, how quickly homes are selling, how much asking prices are being cut to attract demand and how many homes have been on the market for more than six months.

These factors were analysed across 120 postal areas of the UK to create an overall ranking of the areas with the best prospects for 2026.

Overall, Scotland’s markets dominate the UK rankings, with just one of the UK top 10 areas being in England.

The Motherwell (ML) postal district near Glasgow takes the No. 1 spot, with eight other markets in Scotland rounding out the top nine slots.

Belfast comes in at number 25 while Newport in Wales takes the 42nd spot.

Slow growth in the south

Looking southward, the English market with the best prospects for 2026 is Wigan — sitting in tenth place in the UK rankings — closely followed by Liverpool and Stoke-on-Trent (11th and 12th places, respectively).

In the leader table for England alone, markets in the north-west take up six out of the 10 spots.

Meanwhile, areas outside the north and the Midlands sit lower in the rankings, with Southern England and London showing some of the lowest potential for price growth.

Zoopla suggested that this is largely due to affordability pressures resulting from higher house prices combined with the fact the market is still adjusting to higher mortgage rates.

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 “This data brings into sharp focus that there isn’t a one-speed national property market, with conditions varying significantly across the country,” said Alex Rose, commercial director at Zoopla. “In places like Scotland and the North, sellers are benefiting from strong demand and faster sales, while in many Southern markets, success is more dependent on setting a competitive asking price to attract increasingly selective buyers.”

National divide

Areas across London sit at the bottom of the rankings, reflecting both their combined average price of £711,140 and longer times to sell — with parts of Central London, in particular, seeing a time to sell over twice the UK average of 39 days.

While average UK house prices increased 1.5% in 2025, the spread of growth was from 3% in the top-ranked markets to a 1.2% fall in the bottom-ranked markets.

The same pattern is expected in 2026, according to Zoopla.

 “This report captures the north-south story well,” commented Kevin Shaw, national sales managing director at property services firm LRG. “The point isn’t that one part of England is ‘winning’ — it’s that markets move to different rhythms.”
Northern markets don’t have the the same “roller coaster” price moves as parts of the south, he said, so property prices often show more tempered rises and falls as a result.

“By contrast, the south can overheat — and it can also catch a cold,” according to Kevin.  “Higher values can mean greater sensitivity to mortgage rates, affordability and confidence. That can translate into a longer adjustment period, even while demand for the right homes remains resilient.”