Why are houses so much cheaper up north?

[CliveThighs]

OK, I'm aware this is probably a silly question so please don't flame me too much.

But I live in the south east where a 3 bed terrace costs around £350k. Which is crazy high. But somehow my brain has accepted that this is what a house costs.

But I fell down a zoopla/rightmove rabbit hole earlier and realised that up North a 3 bed terrace is about 1/3 of the price.

So what makes the south so much more expensive. I know the theory is London jobs and higher wages in the SE but are wages really that much lower in the North? Surely teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers get paid roughly the same where ever they are in the country? Minimum wage is the same all over the country, and the vast majority of those living in the SE don't earn these magically high London salaries?

@CliveThighs

OK, I'm aware this is probably a silly question so please don't flame me too much.

But I live in the south east where a 3 bed terrace costs around £350k. Which is crazy high. But somehow my brain has accepted that this is what a house costs.

But I fell down a zoopla/rightmove rabbit hole earlier and realised that up North a 3 bed terrace is about 1/3 of the price.

So what makes the south so much more expensive. I know the theory is London jobs and higher wages in the SE but are wages really that much lower in the North? Surely teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers get paid roughly the same where ever they are in the country? Minimum wage is the same all over the country, and the vast majority of those living in the SE don't earn these magically high London salaries?

Where I live in the Lakes a decent 3 bed can sell for £610K. I'm glad I bought mine years back tbf.

The average annual salary in Cumbria is low £14-22K. The house prices these days are sky high in comparison.

South Manchester terraces are well over 350k for a nice one, as is parts of cheshire. It’s very variable by area.

In our part of Cheshire a terrace certainly doesn’t cost £100,000. I did see this delightful little three bed terrace recently for £700,000 - www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116887292#/?channel=RES_BUY.

You couldn’t find a terrace for that much when I lived in the Lake District either. Surely you know that is a really silly generalisation.

It depends where in the north.

Prices in desirable places are pretty high. A three bed in Skipton, Ilkley or Harrogate for example will cost the same as in the South East. Prices in the Dales or Lakes will be higher.

If you want to know why prices in eg Bradford, Burnley, Colne etc are low I suggest you go and visit for a day!

I love Cheshire!

I just looked for a 3 bed in Kendal -375K.

I'm in the NW, you wouldn't get much house for that money here

PP Bradford has the iMax and the curry mile. Burnley has well Turf Moor... Colne well we love Colne... tee hee.

Bradford has the best Indian. I loved going to Mumtaz when I was a student at Hull.

I live in the North East. Were very lucky, DP and I lived in London for years and we're still on London wages. However in reality a lot if not the majority of people are on minimum wage. It is improving (eg lots of tech jobs more recently) and remote working will help. But it's not an overnight change. The area was also very badly impacted by the financial crisis. We're looking at buying a (for the area very expensive) large property that's still worth less now than what the vendor paid back in 2005. Lots of families too where only the dad (usually) works - partially because they afford it. That said, if you have a decent job your money stretches much further here and most of our friends have much more disposable income here then when we all lived in London (even for those who were on higher wages there than here).

• than when

PP if it's Shildon dont!

@elbea

In our part of Cheshire a terrace certainly doesn’t cost £100,000. I did see this delightful little three bed terrace recently for £700,000 - www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116887292#/?channel=RES_BUY.

You couldn’t find a terrace for that much when I lived in the Lake District either. Surely you know that is a really silly generalisation.

Tarporley is lovely. Went on the way to Children in Need years back.

It's also historic reasons.
Royalty and Parliament has generally been in the South.
There's a lot more old mine workings below properties in the North of England and parts of Scotland.

Because Northerners are not as daft as Southerners when it comes to parting with hard-earned cash.

I'm not sure people in the Lakes, lots of Manchester, York, Harrogate, parts of Lancaster, etc would agree with you.

In the Lakes in particular where many of the 'locals' are in service industry and public sector jobs the wages don't come anywhere near covering the cost of a standard 3 bed in the popular areas.

probably to do with jobs. I was going to say weather, but that would mean cities in scotland would be cheaper, but aberdeen and edinburgh are expensive, and then also theres plenty of areas in the south east that are just as cheap as the north

To take into account the lack of electricity, running water, and inside toilets. Plus we get paid in whippets or flat caps, not currency, mostly. HTH

No London weighting, so lower salary therefore lower affordability, less demand etc. Plus it does vary, there are very expensive areas everywhere if you look for them.

@elbea

In our part of Cheshire a terrace certainly doesn’t cost £100,000. I did see this delightful little three bed terrace recently for £700,000 - www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116887292#/?channel=RES_BUY.

You couldn’t find a terrace for that much when I lived in the Lake District either. Surely you know that is a really silly generalisation.

But if you look at the rest of the properties for sale on Rightmove there, a lot are a fraction of that price. I agree that in many areas of the NW, the prices of some properties are now comparable to the South and are rising fast, but there's a lot of cheaper alternatives even in the same location.

Supply and demand. Shortage of land.

There are undoubtedly a lot of extremely highly paid people in London, but also millions (many millions) of us here have ordinary jobs at ordinary average wages.

London boroughs feature in the country’s most disadvantaged regions.

But there is a lot of work. So many people coming here for work. And there are attractions to living here that some of us are happy to swap for big suburban houses with drives and garages. So it becomes a different way of life.

Two of the most highly qualified people I know have had to relocate from North to South to obtain work in their field.

@BlueStripedTowel

For £350k you could have a 4 bed detached new build up in Scotland (surrounding areas of Glasgow)...

Where are we buying these?? A 4 bed in the latest Cala estate near me in a Glasgow suburb was £550k plus!

Remember as well that you won't be making £100k just for hanging on the a property for a year.

In a reasonable, well managed economy house prices would remain pretty stable. You might get a slight increase over five or ten years but not the ridiculous number of zeros you have in the SE of England and other areas. Houses are for living in not for making a fast buck.

Demand and supply. More people want to live in the south and even more in London. Whether that is because of jobs, lifestyle, family proximity. The fact remains that prices are always dependent on demand and supply.

I live very far north and you could still buy a one bedroom flat in my local town for 40k.
But of course it's not universally cheap and the nicer villages demand much more of a premium.
I do wonder why some people On low wages slog it out in London but guess it is family connections and roots.
To get from this far north to pretty much anywhere is a major endeavour