Is there still a North-South Property Divide?

It has long been reported that the price differential in property prices between Northern and Southern England has been an ongoing gap that has no signs of converging. However is this now an outdated viewpoint?

York has become one of the North’s best-performing property markets due to soaring demand for a limited supply of prime property, with many of these new buyers coming to the area from London. Excellent schools and transport links back to London have also undoubtedly helped.

Currently, 17% of York’s buyers are relocating to the region from London and this trend is increasing. As such, City centre values are now 8.2% above their 2007 peak. The increased demand is mirrored in places such as Bath and Cambridge, which are locations equally sharing a rich architectural heritage.

Newcastle as another northern example, was relatively untouched by the London-led recovery of 2014, with the housing market gathering momentum with annual growth speeding up from 4.3% in June , to 6.7% in December last year.

By contrast in the South, Oxford experienced the greatest ever slowdown in annual growth rate last year, dropping from 15.9% to 11.9%.

London’s yearly rate peaked at 18.9% in July 2014 following the release of pent up demand from domestic and foreign buyers. However tighter mortgage regulations and over-inflated prices led to a more muted Autumn and Winter.

The overall viewpoint by many now, is that demand is now feeding back in to the market, with an exodus of Londoners and those in the Home Counties searching to the Northern areas of the country in search for better value for money.