Halifax says the North East is now the strongest-growing English region, with annual growth of 3.5%, while prices in the North West are up 2.9%.
Now, a leading property expert has highlighted 10 popular northern postcode areas he predicts buyers will target this spring.
Sam Fox, founder of UKMC, says the region is set up to benefit from rising property prices.
”Spring usually brings more buyers into the market, but affordability is still a major concern this year,” he said.
“That is putting northern cities firmly in focus, especially where buyers can still get into a major urban market without taking on southern England levels of cost.
“I am seeing more buyers widen their search north because the sums are simply easier to make work there.
“Once people sit down and look properly at deposit size, monthly repayments and what they will still have left over each month, a lot of northern markets start to look far more realistic.”
Although house prices in the North are rising, Sam urged people to remain realistic.
He explained: “I would not call it a boom in the old sense, because buyers are still price-sensitive and they are still negotiating hard.
“But northern cities are giving people more options than many parts of the South. When budgets are tight, that carries a lot of weight, and it is why these places are likely to stay high on buyers’ lists this spring.”
Below, Sam shares the 10 postcodes in five popular cities across the North that he thinks buyers should be watching most closely.
5. LS12 and LS27, Leeds
“Leeds rounds the list off for me because it remains one of the most important northern hubs for buyers who want scale and opportunity but still need the move to stack up financially. It is not the cheapest city in the North, and it is not the fastest-moving, but it continues to attract attention because it offers the sort of depth that many buyers want. Areas such as LS27 and LS12 give you a sense of how people are trying to balance location, price and practicality much more carefully now." | Google Photo: Google