North-South housing divide slammed into reverse in 2019, says Halifax

The year just ending was when the North-South divide in house prices and capital appreciation slammed into reverse gear according to the Halifax.

The lender says that while house prices were sluggish across the UK in 2019, parts of  northern England saw a very different picture and the region took almost all of the top 10 league table for capital values rising over the past 12 months. 

Top was Billingham in County Durham; according to Halifax this area has seen house prices grow by as much as 12.3 per cent in 2019, with the average value crashing through the £200,000 milestone to reach £216,328 in October.

Next up is Ilkeston, at Derbyshire in the East Midlands, with prices rising 9.1 per cent in just a year to go from £249,439 in 2018 to £272,091 now.

Then comes eight locations in the north west of England - Sale, Wilmslow, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Chorley, Bootle and Southport.

In each of these capital values rose 6.0 per cent of more in 2019.

“This bucks the trend we’ve seen in recent years and marks a small step towards achieving more balance in average regional house prices according to Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax. 

By contrast the 10 largest price declines in 2019 all took place in London or the south east of England, with the single biggest losses occurred in Harrow - that was 3.6 per cent down over the year, from an average of £273,930 to £263,964. 

Nearby Enfield saw prices fall 3.5 per cent while Pinner in Middlesex was down 1.7 per cent - the country’s third steepest fall in the past year.