House price trends show North-South split growing wider

The picturesque Cheshire village of Lymm has survived the snakes and ladders of the property market to emerge as the biggest beneficiary of house price rises in the past 15 years.

Prices in the prized greenbelt area have risen by 301 per cent, from £61,114 to £244,893, according to a study tracking the value of homes since 1988 by Halifax, the UK's biggest mortgage lender.

The biggest "loser" – and the term is relative in the current boom – is Corby in Northamptonshire, which over the same period has seen a 40 per cent rise in prices so that the average home costs £76,007, compared with £54,426 in 1988.

The "winners and losers" table also shows how property prices in Northern Ireland have benefited from the peace process. Bangor in Co Down, and Belfast and Ballyclare in Co Antrim are among the top 10 beneficiaries, with price rises of up to 240 per cent.

In a separate survey, the Halifax published figures yesterday showing that house prices have risen by 306 per cent since its first national price index 20 years ago. The survey offers a rose-tinted view of bricks and mortar as an investment because it compares prices during the current boom with 1983, when house prices were recovering from the recession of two years earlier.

The cost of a home rose on average from £29,993 in 1983 to £121,742 by last year. Homes in Greater London have increased by 456 per cent, while at the other end of the scale the value of property in Scotland has risen by just 158 per cent.

Stripping out the effects of inflation, house prices have increased by 89 per cent in real terms over the past 20 years, equivalent to an average annual rate of 3.3 per cent.

Researchers said the survey further underlined the growing North-South divide, with the average price of property in London now 76 per cent above the national average compared with 28 per cent in early 1983.

By contrast, the cost of property in Scotland has slipped to be just 59 per cent of the UK average, from 93 per cent 20 years ago.

Esher in Surrey is still the most expensive place in the survey, with average prices rising from £195,103 in 1988, when Halifax started to collect data town by town, to £416,328 today. Abertillery in Wales remains the cheapest place, with property costing just £37,872, after increasing from £18,010.

Halifax, which provides one in three mortgages, strips out much of central London from the survey because there is little borrowing in the most expensive areas, such as Mayfair or Chelsea. Overall, there has been little change in the top 10 most expensive locations, with eight of the current 10 in the list in 1988, while six of the cheapest places were also listed 15 years ago. Martin Ellis, Halifax's chief economist, said: "The housing market has been one of the UK's main success stories over the last 20 years. Residential property is a very good long-term investment."

But it is not just house prices that have soared – the number of people owning their homes has also increased. About 12.6 million homes – 59 per cent of the UK's stock – were privately owned in 1983, and this had risen to 17.1 million, or 70 per cent, by the end of last year.

The public rented sector has declined from 30 per cent to 20 per cent since 1983, largely as a result of the Thatcher government's right-to-buy policy introduced in 1979. Mortgage rates have averaged 9.7 per cent over the past 20 years.