Only one local authority area across the UK is yet to see the average value of homes sold exceed £100,000, new figures showing the extent of regional disparities in the housing market reveal.
The research, carried out by the global real estate services provider Savills, found that the Welsh authority of Blaenau Gwent is the only area where the average house price is not over £100,000.
Blaenau Gwent, where the average sale price in 2017 was £97,147, was in the company of the north western council area Burnley until last year when its average prices broke the £100,000 mark.
House prices in all local authorities in London and the South East had exceeded £100,000 by 2002. By the end of 2003, the last of the local authorities of the East and the South West had also breached this threshold.
The average values of all sales recorded by the Land Registry in 2017 was £291,388, according to Savills.
The average house sale price in London exceeded £300,000 last year.
‘It remains to be seen if Bleanau Gwent will finally cross the £100,000 line this year, but this analysis lays bare the stark regional polarisation of housing wealth in the UK,’ said Lucian Cook from Savills.
‘Even if house prices continue to rise in line with the average of the past two decades, it’ll be 2036 before the average sale price in all local authorities of England and Wales reaches the £200,000 mark.
‘House prices at a regional level are a clear reflection of underlying regional economic factors, but such polarisation reduces social mobility and perpetuates the haves and have nots of housing wealth.’
