The North-South property divide is still £102bn in property sales favouring of the South

August 22, 2019

Leading national fast sale agent, Springbok Properties, has looked at how the North and South of the UK currently match up when it comes to the property market with month upon month of market uncertainty hitting the more expensive, southern regions the hardest.

Springbok Properties looked at the number of property transactions and the average house price across the north and south over the last year, multiplying the average house price in each region by the number of transactions to find the average amount of property sold. Totalling these up to form the North-South divide, Springbok then looked at how the two compare.

A very, very contentious subject, what makes the North-South divide? For the sake of impartiality, Springbok has created a three-way split between: –

  • The South: London, the East, the South East and South West
  • The North: The North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber
  • The Middle: The East and West Midlands and Wales.

The research shows that when it comes to transactions the South has been struggling, with total transactions down -7.3% year on year, compared to just -3.3% in the North and -3.3% again in the Midlands and Wales.

When it comes to growth in the total value of sales, the South again is bottom of the pile with a annual drop of -7% in the total value, compared to a drop of just -1% in the North. The Midlands and Wales are the only team to see the total value increase annually with a change of 1%.

However, when it comes to the actual value of the property sold, the South remains firmly in front despite the year on year drop with a huge £138.37bn worth of property sold in the last year.

The Midlands and Wales rank next with just £37.79bn worth of property sold and the North ranks last with just £36.18bn worth of property sold in the last year.

A previous survey found that the majority of the UK think the Midlands is part of the North but even with the additional firepower of these two regions and Wales, the total value of property sold comes to just £73.97bn, having dropped marginally year on year and coming in at around half that of the South.

Founder and CEO of Springbok Properties, Shepherd Ncube, commented: 

“We’ve seen some much stronger market performances across the Midlands and the North since the EU referendum where transactions are concerned, and when it comes to the individual value of property, homeowners in London and the South East have suffered far worse at the hands of market uncertainty.

However, as a proud citizen from the outstanding city of Manchester, it pains me to say that the South is still miles ahead when it comes to the actual value of property being transacted and only marginally behind on transactional volume when compared to the North, Midlands and Wales as a whole.”

Category
Region
2017
2018
Change (%)
Transactions
House Price
Total Value*
Transactions
House Price
Total Value*
Transactions
Average House Price
Total Value*
 
N
North East
38,980
£130,118
£5,071,998,011
37,710
£128,867
£4,859,591,979
-3.3%
-1.0%
-4.2%
N
North West
114,392
£158,863
£18,172,678,866
110,509
£162,697
£17,979,516,871
-3.4%
2.4%
-1.1%
N
Yorkshire and The Humber
85,066
£158,435
£13,477,467,106
82,324
£162,071
£13,342,330,142
-3.2%
2.3%
-1.0%
Total
238,438
N/A
£36,722,143,982
230,543
N/A
£36,181,438,991
-3.3%
N/A
-1.5%
 
M
East Midlands
80,558
£184,942
£14,898,532,011
77,574
£191,766
£14,876,026,218
-3.7%
3.7%
-0.2%
M
West Midlands
85,793
£175,474
£15,054,443,747
83,148
£185,101
£15,390,807,044
-3.1%
5.5%
2.2%
M
Wales
47,908
£153,791
£7,367,811,989
46,367
£162,248
£7,522,953,406
-3.2%
5.5%
2.1%
Total
214,259
N/A
£37,320,787,747
207,089
N/A
£37,789,786,667
-3.3%
N/A
1.3%
 
S
East
102,643
£289,022
£29,666,118,197
96,081
£290,855
£27,945,673,805
-6.4%
0.6%
-5.8%
S
London
93,156
£476,848
£44,421,253,825
85,145
£474,310
£40,385,159,546
-8.6%
-0.5%
-9.1%
S
South East
151,275
£320,733
£48,518,841,870
139,982
£321,145
£44,954,506,768
-7.5%
0.1%
-7.3%
S
South West
104,765
£249,309
£26,118,831,896
97,580
£257,023
£25,080,352,285
-6.9%
3.1%
-4.0%
Total
451,839
N/A
£148,725,045,788
418,788
N/A
£138,365,692,404
-7.3%
N/A
-7.0%
 
*Total value is the property transaction volume for each region multiplied by the average house price. The total for each of the N,M and S divides is the total across each region of each group. The total value is the value of property sold.

 

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