House prices across major cities in southern England have weaker growth than at any time for more than seven years.

No city from the South made it into the top 10, with Cambridge, London, Oxford, Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Bristol all featuring in the bottom 10, Zoopla found.

As to why, the property company said there simply weren't sellers putting their homes on the market at realistic prices.

Zoopla research director Richard Donnell said: “There is a clear imbalance between supply and demand for housing across southern cities and this explains why house price growth in these cities is at its lowest level since 2012.”

But things were going a lot better for homeowners in the North.

Across major northern cities in England there was average annual price growth of 3.6% – as the demand for housing in these areas keeps pace with supply.

"We expect regional cities outside the south of England to continue to out-perform, although there are early signs of weaker growth ahead in parts of the midlands as successive years of house prices rising faster than earnings is beginning to weaken demand," Donnell said.

Zoopla added that while Birmingham had been one of the strongest performing cities since the Brexit vote, market conditions appear to be shifting with weaker sales growth and rising supply.

Newcastle also bucked the trend with growth of just 1.5%, making it the only northern city to feature in the bottom 10.

Across the border in Scotland there was a mixed picture. Edinburgh saw the strongest price growth of all 20 cities studied, while Aberdeen has the weakest. Glasgow, by contrast, was placed 10th out of 20.

In Wales, Cardiff featured high up the list, while in Northern Ireland Belfast came in the top half of cities too.

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