The property price gulf in the UK is yawning wider according to official figures, which today showed a London home now costs a massive three and a half times one in the North East.
February data from the Land Registry showed the average London house price had risen 4.2 per cent annually to ?354,300, while that in the North East had fallen 2.5 per cent to ?99,385.
Estate agent Peter Hughes observed that, ‘There has always been a gap between property prices in London and the rest of the country. But that gap is quickly turning into a gulf.
Average property prices in London are pushed up by exclusive areas like Notting Hill‘Outside the capital and the South East, the market is highly fragmented. Northern England is being hit hard by public sector job cuts and consumer confidence there is on its knees.’
Property in the North east was not the biggest faller over the year though – that went to the North West where the average house price fell 3.5 per cent.
Across England and Wales, there was a price decrease of 0.6 per cent, which takes the average property value to ?161,588. Prices from from January to February went up by 0.1 per cent.
Wales experienced the greatest monthly rise with a movement of 2.0 per cent, and the North East saw the most significant monthly price fall with a decrease of 2.6 per cent.
Mind the gap: The chasm between London and the North east especially has grownMr Hughes said in some regions the property market was ‘a shadow of its former self’.
‘Both supply and demand have shrunk considerably. So it’s no surprise that prices are being squeezed.
‘But prices in London continue to defy both gravity and logic – though the numbers for the capital as a whole are probably being inflated by an overheating super-prime niche at the top end of the market.’
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