Hartlepool house prices up by 1.6% in December

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that the average property in the area sold for £115,696 – significantly lower than the UK average of £230,776.

Across the North East, property prices have fallen by 1% in the last year, to £128,756.

The region underperformed compared to the UK as a whole, which saw the average property value increase by 2.5%.

The data comes from the House Price Index, which the ONS compiles using house sale information from the Land Registry, and the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The average homeowner in Hartlepool will have seen their property jump in value by around £20,000 in the last five years.

The figures also showed that buyers who made their first step onto the property ladder in Hartlepool in December spent an average of £97,740 – around £17,000 more than it would have cost them five years ago.

Looking at the national picture, Frances Clacy, residential research analyst at estate agents Savills, said: “House prices across the UK increased by 2.5% in 2018 leaving them at an average of £230,776. This compares to average increases of 4.5% and 5.2% in 2017 and 2016, respectively.

“In the short term, sentiment will remain the primary driver of house price movements and the economic implications of Brexit, and what this might mean for household finances lies at the heart of this. We are anticipating growth of around 15% across the UK as a whole.”

Between November 2017 and October last year, the most recent 12 months for which sales volume data is available, 1,290 homes were sold in Hartlepool, similar to the number in the previous year.

The highest house prices in the country in December were found in London’s Kensington and Chelsea, where properties sold for an average of £1.39million – 17 times the cost of a home in Burnley, where the average property cost just £84,000.