How house prices are moving

The gap in house prices between different regions in the UK, which seemed to stabilise in 1993, may be widening again.

Over the past year, house prices in the North have been falling slightly, while remaining more or less flat in the Midlands and rising gently in the South.

House prices in the South are now about 17.5 per cent above the national average, compared with 15.9 per cent above the average a year ago. Prices in the north today are 15.3 per cent below that national average figure, compared with 13.7 per cent below average this time last year.

In spite of this continuing drift, the average house price is still 2 per cent higher than it was in the spring of 1993.