Average prices in Belfast at £129,629 are 28 per cent lower than they were ten years ago, highlighting the steep slump in Northern Ireland’s housing market.

Prices in Liverpool and Aberdeen are down by one per cent and three per cent to £117,800 and £163,200 respectively over the past decade, while the average property in Glasgow has risen by only one per cent to £122,000.

In Newcastle, the typical price of £128,700 is only three per cent higher than 2007-8.

By contrast, homeowners in Cambridge have seen their properties soar in value by 70 per cent over the same period to £432,410. Prices have also rapidly risen in Bristol and Oxford.

In London, prices are up 65 per cent to £483,792.

On a national basis, prices are 26 per cent higher on average compared to ten years ago.

Hometrack, which is part of the same company as property website Zoopla, based its research on sold prices and mortgage valuations.

Over the past 12 months, prices have risen across 20 major cities included in the study by 4.2 per cent on average, with Nottingham and Leicester showing the biggest increases at 7.5 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively. Meanwhile Aberdeen saw prices fall by four per cent. London prices dropped by 0.1 per cent compared to a year ago.

Helen Griffin-Booth, from Bluerow estate agents in Liverpool, agreed with the study’s findings. She said: “Property prices are lower in Liverpool and that makes it a more attractive investment as it shows there is room for growth, although how long it’s going to stay that way I don’t know as there’s a lot of development going on.”

Young adults priced out of the London housing market were investing in buy-to- let properties in Liverpool and there was increasing interest from overseas investors, she said. 

Sophie Adcock of Walton Robinson estate agents in Newcastle said: “Property prices have not recovered or taken off as quickly in Newcastle as people would have liked. They have stayed steady.” Ms Adcock said tighter lending criteria for mortgages after the financial crisis and Stamp Duty changes may be partly to blame.

David Radcliffe of Radcliffe and Rust estate agents said multiple factors had caused property prices to rocket in Cambridge, including the growth of science parks and Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

He said: “A lot of very clever people come here to go to university, move away to find employment and come back because they fell in love with the city. “There’s a huge buy-to-let market in Cambridge and there’s a green belt around the city, so it can’t grow outwards. As more and more people want to live here and there aren’t enough properties to buy, prices go up – it’s supply and demand.”