House prices rise in the North as London's fall, and one broker explains why the momentum may hold
For most of her 20-year career, Tracie Selley (pictured top) watched the same market pattern repeat itself: London and the South East moved first, and the rest of the country followed. This year, that pattern broke.
Selley, a mortgage and protection consultant at Approved Mortgage Solutions, relocated from the South to the North East fourteen years ago. At the time, she expected to spend her days explaining the housing market to her new neighbours. Instead, the past twelve months have seen the data catch up with what buyers in the region had already sensed.
“I moved from the South to the Northeast 14 years ago, and if I'm honest, I expected to be the one explaining the market to my new neighbours,” Selley said. “Instead, I've spent the past 12 months watching the data catch up with what buyers up here already knew: this region offers something the South currently can't.”
The figures back her up. According to the UK House Price Index, house prices grew fastest in the North East, Northern Ireland and the North West in the year to April 2026. Over the same period, prices in London fell. That North-South divide in terms of house price growth is also evident in the latest Lloyds House Price Index, released yesterday. The shift in the trend is a rare crossover, and one Selley says she has seen only a handful of times in two decades in the industry.
Mortgage rates help explain why. Market data tracked by Robinson & Hall Auctions shows the average two-year fixed rate rose from 4.83% in early March to 5.9% by early April 2026. Selley said that increase bites hardest where loan sizes are largest, since a rate rise on a £500,000 London mortgage costs a buyer far more each month than the same rise on a £180,000 mortgage in the North East. When affordability tightens, she said, it tightens most where budgets were already stretched.
Breathing room, not just cheaper bricks
On the ground, Selley said the appeal of the North East goes beyond price alone.
“Clients moving and living or buying in the north aren't just chasing cheaper bricks and mortar, though that's certainly part of it,” Selley said. “They're chasing breathing room — a mortgage that doesn't swallow every spare pound the moment rates twitch.”
First-time buyers, she added, are finding the gap between local wages and local house prices considerably narrower than in the South. That translates into smaller deposits, shorter savings timelines, and mortgages that fit more comfortably around everyday life.
Hybrid working has reinforced the trend. What began as a pandemic-era novelty has settled into a lasting shift, according to Selley, with buyers who might once have confined their search to the commuter belt now widening it considerably, sometimes as far as the North East.
For those considering the same move she made, Selley's advice is not to assume the process will mirror what they are used to, even within England.
“Stamp duty savings can be more generous than people expect, and it's worth genuinely researching commuter links rather than assuming they'll mirror what you're used to down South — the geography, and the trade-offs, are different,” she explained.
A divide likely to persist
Selley is careful not to overstate the certainty of the trend. Analysis from Robinson & Hall Auctions suggests the North-South divide will continue in the near term, with easing mortgage rates and sustained price growth supporting northern markets, while southern regions continue to face affordability pressures. Much depends, she said, on the Bank of England's next moves.
But for all the shifts in rates and regional performance, Selley said the core of her job as a mortgage broker has stayed the same.
“What hasn't changed, in 20 years of doing this job, is the part I love most: sitting down with someone and helping them get into a home that works for their life, wherever in the country that happens to be,” Selley said. “Right now, for a growing number of people, that home is here.”
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