Aneisha Beveridge, research director at Hamptons and Connells Group, said: “As ever, there’s a mixed picture when it comes to price performance, and the national average masks what’s happening in local areas.
“And, there are some longer term forces at play here.
“More affordable parts of the Midlands and the North have been outperforming the rest of the country, not just in 2025, but for most of the last decade, supported by lower price points and therefore stronger affordability.
“By contrast, households in London and the South have felt the impact of higher interest rates most acutely since 2022, which has held back price growth, narrowing the historic North-South divide.
“Some of the areas that saw the sharpest gains immediately after the pandemic – particularly prime commuter spots and many coastal locations – have since given back a little value as the market has cooled.
“And while weaker performance in London means a growing pool of households may face selling their homes for less than they paid, the opposite is true in many northern markets.
“In fact, Londoners overtook sellers in the North East as the group most likely to sell at a loss last year – a reversal of a trend that has held for much of the last decade.
“Even so, last year’s sellers still did well overall: the average household walked away with £91,260 more than they paid, and 91 per cent of people who sold made a profit.
“That underlines the resilience of the housing market, even through a period of higher mortgage rates and greater economic uncertainty.”
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