The North South Housing Divide
The North South divide of Britain’s housing market has been commented upon for decades but since the economic downturn the stark difference between the two has never been so apparent. To actually sense how different the two ends of the country actually are you only have to take two examples from each to notice the divide. One single mother had her Bingley flat in West Yorkshire on the market back in October. She had lived there for six years and had initially put in on the market back in the summer of 2009. She had used different estate agents to try and sell her property for her but she had only had a handful of viewings and certainly no offers. She describes the flat as a typical first time buyer’s home but these are the exact people wh sell my house fast o are struggling to get a mortgage in today’s climate. She also adds that unemployment is bad in her area due to the job losses at the Bradford and Bingley bank where one sixth of the work force was laid off. She explains that people used to come to Bingley to buy a home because it was cheaper than buying in nearby Leeds but since the downturn the number of flats in Leeds have dropped in price such a great deal since 2007 that they are the first choice for buyers. Her home is near a railway station and was priced at just 110,000 but she still could not sell. She feels that she has no choice but to rent out her flat until the market picks up and rent a house nearby with a garden for her and her daughter.Down South is a very different story.