Member Article

North East house prices fall for second month in a row

• North East house prices fall for second month in a row – down 0.2% from October and 0.5% since peaking in September. • Average house in the region now worth £157,244 - £186 less than four weeks ago. • Fall driven by significant price decreases in Killingworth (2.6%) and North Shields (2.4%) • Newcastle named “Best to Buy“ having already been named “Best City in the UK“. • Regional rents remain stationary at £598pcm North Shields named “Best to Invest“.

KIS Housing NOW – Housing North of Watford - pulls together the most authoritative and up-to-the-minute data and the expert market analysis of the KIS Intelligence Service to give you an indispensible guide to the state of the North East property market.

Property Price Analysis

North East house prices fell for the second consecutive month in November, and are currently 0.5% lower than their peak in September.

Property prices across the region fell by 0.2% over the last four weeks, with the typical home in the region worth £186 less than in October. Prices remain 4% higher than six months ago.

More than half of the areas surveyed this month recorded modest rises in property values, with the overall fall driven by pronounced decreases in previously buoyant areas like Killingworth (-2.6%) and North Shields (-2.4%).

The price fall recorded in KIS’ analysis is also significantly lower than the month-on-month fall of 3.6% reported recently by Rightmove.

East Durham saw the North East’s largest rises, with both Easington and Peterlee recording rises of 1.7%. Prices in Easington are now 4.3% higher than they were 12 weeks ago.

It was also a strong month for South Tyneside, with South Shields and Whitburn the joint next-fastest rises, with prices increases of 1.2%.

Newcastle is named this month’s “Best to Buy”, with prices falling back slightly (0.2%) having risen by over 5% in the preceding 3 months. The toon was named Best City in the UK by readers of The Guardian, and the fourth best city in the country for families

Rental Market Analysis

North East rents remain near-stationary at £598pcm - £6 up on October. Rents decreased distinctly in Darlington, falling by 2.9% month on month.

Rental yields rose by an average of 0.2%, with the strongest returns landlords can expect to make on their investment still to be found in Gateshead (up 0.6% to 7.7%). The typical rental yield on a North East home remains 4.5% per annum.

Yields in Durham City rose by a striking 1.3% in September – although this is likely to be the result of students beginning the search for homes for the new academic year.

North Shields’ unanticipated fall in house prices – which comes on the back of a 5.1% surge over the last two months – sees the town named this month’s “Best to Invest”.

74% of properties in North Shields are flats, maisonettes or apartments and 65% of households are made up of just one person.

Newcastle is also one-to-watch for the buy-to-let investor, with its rental yield of investors rising by a whole percentage point in just two months.

Ajay Jagota, founder and Chief Executive Officer of KIS Group responded to the figures.

He said: “A moderate cooling of the market is always to be expected in the run-up to Christmas but with North East property prices at a standstill for two months now it may well be that the mini-boom of recent months is at the very least on hiatus.

“What is really interesting is the variations we’re seeing from area to area – proving the value of highly-regionalised analysis like ours. If you remove North Shields and Killingworth from the figures, property prices actually rose slightly, up 0.5%, and even those areas are considerably up on this time last year.

“Whether it’s we’re seeing a price plateau or it’s just the time of year, now would be a good time for those looking to rent or sell a property to take advantage of the comparatively cool market to make repairs or improvements to their properties in preparation of the new year.

“A lot of people make it their New Year resolution to move house, so it’s important that your home looks its best when they do – ’tis the season to be painting!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ajay Jagota .