The Bristol areas where house prices have rocketed this year | Bristol Live

Some parts of Bristol have seen average prices rise by nearly half in the past year alone

Property prices in Bristol have risen by an average of 20 per cent in the last year alone, according to Bristol Live analysis of Land Registry data via Rightmove.

Between April 2020 and March 2021 - the most recent period for which data is available - the average price paid for a home in Bristol rose from £309,544 to £370,206, a difference of £60,661.

The postcode with the biggest relative price increase was BS14, which includes Hengrove, Stockwood, and Whitchurch.

READ MORE: The areas where Bristol people are moving to the most

The postcode saw its average property sale price increase from £198,658 to to £294,154, a 48 per cent hike.

BS6, which covers Cotham, Redland, Montpelier, Westbury Park, St. Andrew's, was the postcode district with the next highest percentage increase, with a 42 per cent average rise from £414,533 to £589,021.

The data take in to account the sale prices of all detached, semi-detached, and terraced houses, as well as flats.

Note that both April 2020 and March 2021 were months in which the UK was in some form of lockdown due to coronavirus.

Across the UK during the same period, home prices rose from £230,296 to £256,406, or 10.2 per cent, which is the fastest annual growth rate for 14 years.

That's despite the pandemic causing an extremely sharp economic downturn and some 1.2 million people losing their job over the course of the crisis.

Median monthly pay grew by 3.9 per cent in the year ending February 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics.

However that figure is likely to be higher than workers' actual wage growth, since the people who have lost work in the past year have been disproportionately lower paid, pushing the average up.

Despite many people losing work and money during the pandemic, millions of people are better off now than they were before.

People who've been able to work from home have saved money on their commute, and since it's been more difficult to go for meals out or to sports events, gigs, or pubs, for example, many have saved money there, too.

The market has also been inflated by the government's stamp duty relief, which was introduced in June 2020 and precluded house buyers from paying the tax on the first £500,000 of their purchase.

That relief is now being phased out: currently, home buyers must pay tax on anything above £250,000, and it will return to normal from October 1, 2021.

In the meantime, the lower tax meant buyers had more money to spend on the property itself - and sellers knew that - and there was also a rush to complete deals before the series of deadlines, meaning demand was increased in that period.

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