Closing The Gap

The traditional North/South property divide in Britain has moved from just 10 counties in the South of England to encompass parts of Wales and the Midlands, new research has found.

A decade ago, there was a clear cut, central Southern pocket that covered the counties Dorset, Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, Surrey, London, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Rutland.

But the research from automated property management specialists Howsy, which looked at the average house price across each county and chartered the physical property divide line based on the house price threshold of £200,000, shows that has s widened considerably to envelope the entire south of England, much of the Midlands and parts of Wales.

While there is still a very clear cut border between the North and South property markets, with 29 counties in England and the three regions in Wales that sit below, there are also now three regions in Scotland; Edinburgh, East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire, where prices are above £200,000, as well as North Yorkshire.

‘Not only does it show the evolution of the UK housing market but highlights the pressure being put on the UK rental market as a result, with more and more being priced out of home ownership by unaffordability and remaining reliant on the letting sector,’ said Calum Brannan, chief executive officer of Howsy.

‘There’s a very real chance we will continue to see this pocket stretch even further North and we predict that demand on the UK rental sector will only grow,’ he added.