Postcode price wars fuelled by mortgage data

Agents will soon be able to analyse whether buyers find it easier or harder to borrow to buy in different postcodes - with the prospect that house prices may vary as a result.

The Council for Mortgage Lenders is now issuing data from major lenders broken down by around 9,000 postcode sectors.

The data is compiled by the CML and covers Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Santander UK, RBS and the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, which together represent about 73 per cent of the total mortgage market.

The British Bankers' Association is simultaneously publishing a similar postcode-based update on lending to small and medium sized enterprises and personal loans.

There has been an increase in postcode-based data supplied to the public recently, which could help or hinder property sales - for example, MoneySupermarket.com recently compiled burglary figures using this breakdown.

In recent weeks there have been disputes as residents on the boundaries of different postcodes have discovered alleged house price differences.

For example, a petition asking Royal Mail to change postcode boundaries has been set up by residents currently classified as living in Deptford, south London, but who instead want to be regarded as living in adjacent Greenwich, where house prices are higher.

It's the same story in Whitton, a town in affluent Richmond-Upon-Thames, west London, where residents claim their TW3 postcode puts them on databases as being in the neighbouring and more deprived borough of Hounslow. This allegedly means their house prices are lower and insurance premiums higher.