City house prices in cities have shot up 382% over the past 25 years from an average of £35,209 in 1986 to £169,707 in 2011, research from Halifax reveals.
This exceeded the increase of 347% for the UK as a whole over the period.
Truro, Westminster and Edinburgh were the cities that recorded the biggest price rises since 1986 at 550%, 522% and 509% respectively.
Cities have also performed well in relative terms in the four years since the housing market peaked in 2007.
Three-quarters of cities recorded a better house price performance than their region between 2007 and 2011 with house prices in cities falling by an average of 18% since 2007 compared with the UK average decline of 24%.