The widening north-south divide in the housing market is laid bare by new official figures showing that average prices are up 10% in London over the last year but down by as much at 10% in parts of north-east England such as Hartlepool.
The widening north-south divide in the housing market is laid bare by new official figures showing that average prices are up 10% in London over the last year but down by as much at 10% in parts of north-east England such as Hartlepool.
According to the November data issued by the Land Registry (pdf), the average house price in England and Wales now stands at £165,411 – some 3.2% higher than a year earlier. However, these figures disguise wide regional variations.
Of the 10 regions, London saw the largest annual price rise – 10.6% – which lifted the typical price-tag to £396,646. That is more than four times the typical cost of a home in the north-east, which was the only region where prices were down (by 1.6%) on an annual basis. There, the average home costs £96,227.
The data for London also reveals the differing fortunes of the 33 boroughs over the past year. The annual rate of house price growth is now running at 15.3% in Waltham Forest, which includes Walthamstow, Leyton and Chingford, and has seen a surge of interest from would-be buyers priced out of nearby areas such as Hackney and Stoke Newington.
Other boroughs that experienced strong price growth during the past year include Wandsworth (13.8%) and Lambeth (13.5%). By contrast, prices in the boroughs of Harrow and Havering are up only 1.9% and 2.2% respectively over the year.
Across the country, Manchester experienced above-average house price growth, with property values up 4.8% over the past year to an average of £95,438, while the annual increase in Birmingham was 3.4%, taking the typical price-tag to £113,855.
Meanwhile, the town of Hartlepool was named by the Land Registry as the location that suffered the biggest annual fall in house prices: down 9.9% to an average of £71,749. In Middlesbrough, a few miles away, prices are down by 6.1% over the year.
It also emerged that 1,020 properties in England and Wales sold for more than £1m in September 2013 – up 60% on the 639 in September 2012.