North south divide widens over house prices

Friday 17th August 2012

The north south divide has widened in terms of what people think of house prices.

The latest Knight Frank Markit survey of 1,500 households across the UK shows that London remains the only region where households felt the value of their home rose over the past month.

Households in all the other ten regions reported house price falls, with people in the North-West seeing the deepest declines.
 
Overall, around 28% of households anticipate a rise in the value of their home over the next 12 months, compared with 24% expecting a decline – but the optimism is divided.

On average, households in the southern regions expect price rises while while those in the North expect prices to fall.

The only exceptions to those expecting house price falls in the North are households in Yorkshire and the Humber, and in Scotland.
 
Gráinne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said the overall results of the latest survey suggest that households believe the housing market to be at its weakest in six months.