North-South gap in house prices widens to £169,000

THE average house in the South of England costs more than twice as much as one in the North – the widest price gap on record, figures reveal.

Northern homes are now worth an average £155,222 while in the South, the figure is £324,078 – nearly £169,000 more, says the Nationwide.

The building society’s chief economist robert Gardner said: ‘The pace of house price growth tends to decline as you move from the south to the north of the country. It remains unclear how long this pattern will persist.’

The biggest price rises in the three months to June were in the regions around London, where there was a 12.4 per cent rise to £354,787. But the North East and Cumbria saw a 1 per cent fall in house prices to £123,914.

Jeremy Leaf, former chairman of the royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a north London estate agent, said the figures were ‘surprisingly strong’, given the uncertainty before the EU poll. He said: ‘They show that the market is more resilient than we might have expected.’

The average price for England was £253,461 – up 1.5 per cent on the previous quarter. In Scotland, prices rose 0.5 per cent to £141,245. In Wales they were up 0.9 per cent to £145,973.

Nationwide said it was too early to judge the effects of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Demand for property remained strong, the building society said. Growth might be slower due to continued uncertainty but prices are unlikely to fall.

Mr Gardner said that a stamp duty rise for buy-to-let investors earlier this year made guessing ahead even harder. ‘Ultimately, conditions in the housing market will be determined by conditions in the wider economy,’ he said.