UK house prices have increased by an average of £11,500 over the12 months to May 2015 with seven cities in the South of England significantly outperforming this level, the latest index from Hometrack shows.

The average house in a city now costs £189,400 with London more than double this figure at £425,700, with month on month basis prices increased by 0.8% in May which is 3.8% above the peak of the market in 2007.

Oxford has recorded the highest rise in the last 12 months with growth of £41,700, nearly quadruple the UK average of £11,500, followed by London at £38,900, Cambridge at £23,900, Bristol at £22,400, Southampton at £15,300, Bournemouth at £15,300 and Portsmouth at £15,000.

Hometrack said that these house prices gains are a result of robust demand underpinned by the strength of these cities’ local economies and all 20 cities covered by the index recorded annual price rises.

Those that saw the smallest rises were all in the north. In Liverpool prices increased by £4,200, Newcastle by £4,700 and Sheffield by £5,300 and these cities are still 14%, 8.5% and 3.8% respectively below their 2007. They are part of a group of nine cities in the north of England, Scotland and North Ireland that are recovering at a much slower pace due to weaker demand from house buyers.

All cities except Aberdeen with a fall of 0.4%, recorded month on month price rises and Hometrack said that this could be partly due to a post-election bounce. Bristol led the way with a 1.3% increase followed by Cambridge, Leicester, Liverpool and Belfast all at 1.2%.