Today’s RICS housing survey shows an increasing North-South divide across the UK as house buyers look to prepare themselves for the full impact of the coalition government’s cuts.

James Moss, director at Curzon Investment Property, a London investment agent, said: 

“This is further emphasis on the increasing North-South divide. The UK is no longer one housing market: in London and the South, where economic recovery is strongest and there is an increasing international market, prices have risen. Meanwhile, across the North, the midlands and Wales the recovery is much more patchy and the market is very locally orientated.  

However, there will always be pockets of prime property in every region, so all of these surveys do need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

“The abolition of HIPs has also helped to bring the market more back in to equilibrium. By removing the up-front costs of bringing a property to market, many would-be sellers are now strongly returning to test the market. The lack of mortgage finance combined with the requirement by the banks for large deposits remains the largest single impediment to the recovery across the UK housing market as the whole."