Bury is top property hotspot: Lower prices mean sales in the North outperform the South

Published 14th Oct 2011

The Greater Manchester town of Bury is the unlikely property hotspot of 2011 with sales in the small town up a mammoth 44 per cent over the first six months of the year, according to data.

The Halifax research revealed that sales of properties in northern towns outperformed those of its southern counterparts.

Four towns that recorded the biggest rises in residential property sales since 2010 are located in the North.

It is welcome news for northern regions of the country, which are often lagging behind in property sale and price reports, which tend to indicate that the North/South divide is getting bigger

According to Halifax, the substantial increase in property sales in Bury since 2010 have been driven by a rise in the level of activity at the lower end of the housing market, with flats and terraced home accounting for 77 per cent of the overall rises.

That means that while its properties may have lost value compared to London and the South East, at least that has helped them sell.

The towns of Leigh, Rugeley and Houghton Le Spring lead the way with Bury as the property hotspots of England and Wales in 2011.

Leigh in Greater Manchester (32 per cent) and the Staffordshire town of Rugeley (30 per cent) saw the next biggest increases after Bury.

Outside of the northern areas, the seaside destination of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk recorded the biggest increase in home sales (27 per cent).

However, despite the large increases in sales in these areas, a major factor of the high growth is down to the fact they have come from a relatively low base level of sales.

Total transaction levels in the ten top performing towns over the past year are still on average 49 per cent lower than a decade ago.

Sales in Bury are 42 per cent lower than 2001 and sales in Houghton Le Spring are down more than half in ten years.

Nearly all of the worst performing towns for house sales in the past year are in the pricey South, with nine out of ten of the areas listed located in southern England.

The Hertfordshire town of Hoddesdon (-39 per cent) saw the largest drop in sales according to the research.

This was followed by Buckingham (-34 per cent) and Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire (-32 per cent) as the worst performing southern towns.

Aberdale in Wales (-33 per cent) is the only town outside southern England to appear among the ten worst performing areas.

These findings are in stark contrast to last year’s results which saw eight out of ten areas with the biggest property sale increases located in the South.


All regions saw a fall in sales between the first half of 2010 and 2011. The North recorded the smallest fall (-2.2 per cent), the North West (-4.8 per cent) and the West Midlands (-4.9 per cent) saw the next smallest declines.

The number of home sales in London fell by -11.3 per cent over the period, more than in any other region.

The South West (-11.1 per cent) and South East (-10.7 per cent) experienced the next largest declines.

Overall, property sales across England and Wales have fallen by -8.7 per cent over the past year.

Looking at the bigger picture, the number of property sales in England and Wales have fallen by a worrying 49 per cent over the last decade.

There were 532,709 residential property sales in the first half of 2001, compared to 271,113 in the same period of 2011.

Home sales in the South have proved slightly more robust than the North. Sales in the South are down 48 per cent in the last decade, compared to a 51 per cent drop in the North.

Suren Thriu, housing economist at Halifax, said: ‘A number of towns across England and Wales have experienced a significant rise in home sales over the past year despite the more subdued picture across the country as a whole.

‘Many of the top performing towns are in the North, reflecting a reversal of 2010 when the housing market in southern England outperformed the North.

‘The relatively favourable levels of affordability in many of the top performing northern towns have helped to support housing market activity in these locations, albeit from historically low levels.’

Source: ' ThisIsMoney '

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