Member Article

North East property market ‘insulated’ against predicted home sales slump, says My Property Box

The North East is better insulated against falling house prices than other regions, according to Ben Quaintrell, the founder and managing director of estate agency group My Property Box.

He was speaking following a report by property website Zoopla which says the number of homes sold in the UK this year is on track to be the lowest since 2012. It predicts that around one million sales will be completed this year, with transactions almost a fifth lower when compared with 2022.

However, Darlington-headquartered My Property Box, which also has offices in Newcastle, has not experienced any sharp decline.

Ben said: “There has been a slight slow down in sales, but we had feared it might have been far worse. The market is ticking along quite nicely, and we are seeing a high level of activity as we move into September which is always popular with house hunters.

“Demand continues to outstrip supply and I think the North East continues to be relatively well insulated against the extremes of the property market experienced by other regions, particularly those in London and the South East.

“That’s because property in the North East is still the cheapest of any English region and that encourages both buyers and investors.

“The feedback we have had from buyers is that many have accepted the interest rate rises as the new norm and they are just getting on with things as they don’t want to miss out on their dream home. I believe that there is also confidence that the economy is starting to reset and high interest rates are unlikely to be in place over the long term.

“In addition, the various levelling up initiatives, such as the HM Treasury campus in Darlington, continues to have a positive effect on the market with people moving into the area – and we are seeing that reflected across both sales and lettings.”

The Government’s latest house price index for June 2021 reports the average property price in the North East was £161,034, an increase of 4.7 per cent over the previous 12 months – making it the lowest of the nine English regions. The highest was London with an average price of £527,979 followed by the South East with £391,406. The figure for Yorkshire and the Humber was £208, 867, an annual increase in value of 2.7%.

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