North East Property Market – Overview
The north east region has been struggling with house price stagnation for a number of years. And despite double-digit growth in many other areas of the UK, property values in the North East have remained relatively flat. A recent report on the Chronicle Live website revealed that house prices in Durham were actually 1.4 percent lower in 2014 than they were in 2015. The North East is a geographically large region, and the house price picture varies wildly, depending on where you look.
Newcastle seems to be one of the few bright spots in a largely flat property market in the North East. According to property analyst Hometrack, Newcastle house prices rose by 2.5 percent between 2014 and 2015. Demand for property in the city is rising, and so are wages. The continued shortage in the supply of new homes in Newcastle has led some property analysts to predict that property values in the city could continue rising for at least another five years.
Although the Land Registry reported that the North East was the only region as a whole to record falling house prices in 2014/2015, the situation was a little different in Sunderland. House prices there actually rose by four percent – taking the average price of a home in the city to a little over £89,000. Nearby South Tyneside experienced a 0.3 percent fall in average property values, which resulted in an average price of around £97,000 in June 2015.
It was the south of the region that bore the brunt of the worst house price falls in 2014 and 2015. According to The Land Registry, house prices for houses for sale in Darlington fell by 5.7 percent, and a 7.6 percent fall was recorded on Stockton on Teeside. Bargain hunters in the North East region should look to County Durham for the most affordable property available, as the average price of a home is still under £80,000.
The number of houses for sale in Newcastle is simply not meeting a growing demand – and this situation should lead to several years of growth for the region’s largest urban area. A recent article on the Guardian website revealed that North East house prices shot up by 2.1 percent in July 2015 alone – at a time when they actually fell in London.
There is no doubt that the North East is a great place in which to buy property if you are looking for a bargain that should increase in value significantly over the course of the next decade.
