House prices are never far from the headlines, but it is important for anyone keen to buy, either as a house mover or taking the first step on the ladder, to take a look below the headlines at the finer details.
If you pick up the papers (or read their websites) the first thing you will always see is the national average trend, perhaps embellished with some information about London, which will be uppermost in the minds of the Metropolitan-based media. However, if you are looking for a home in Chorlton, the trends in Manchester and the north-west will be more relevant.
This is important because there are often some significant regional and sub-regional variations. For example, in the latest official government figures published by the Office for National Statistics, house prices fell by an estimated 2.1 per cent in the year to November 2023 in the UK as a whole, but this only told a national story.
Further south, prices dropped by more, with London seeing the biggest fall at six per cent. By contrast, they were up by 2.2 per cent in Scotland and 2.1 per cent in Northern Ireland. While every English region saw a fall, it was by only 0.4 per cent.
As it happens, the drop in the north-west was two per cent, only slightly below the national figure, but it is important to stay vigilant; there is no guarantee the north-west regional trends will stay close to national ones.
It is also worth looking at even more local data. For instance, a recent analysis by the Manchester Evening News looked at how every postcode in Greater Manchester has fared.
This showed, for example, that the Chorlton postcode (M21) had witnessed a rise of 4.7 per cent in 2023, more than other fashionable areas like Sale and Brooklands (M32) or Cheadle and Gatley (SK8) at 3.5 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively, but below neighbouring Didsbury and Withington (M20) at 5.3 per cent.
