North-south divide highlights local housing affordability. 20/10/11

Homeowners in the South may feel they have cause to boast about new house price statistics, released by Rightmove, which reveal the biggest recorded gap in average asking prices between the north and south of the country. 

But we at Heywoods reckon that it is actually house hunters in areas such as North Staffordshire who are having the last laugh, as these latest figures only serve to underline the affordability of property in the region.

Since the onset of the credit crunch, house prices in the Midlands, Wales and the North have reflected the prevailing economic uncertainty by remaining more or less static.

By contrast, asking prices in London and the South-East have continued their pre-recession trend and have increased at a rate that many property specialists consider as unrealistic and unsustainable.

In fact, according to Rightmove, for the price of an average house in the South you can now afford to buy two average homes in the North. And not only that, you'll still have a few thousand pounds of change left over.

Government spending cuts are widely believed to have been the main factor in stabilising prices in the North, where there is greater emphasis on employment in the public sector.

But the implications of this are simple. For those people in the Stoke-on-Trent area who are actually in a position to buy, property is amongst the best value for money anywhere in the country.