Our latest Northern England Residential report covers the three regions: Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the North East, and considers the economies and housing markets within these regions and across Northern England as a whole.

We also look at the city centre apartment markets in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester as well as investigating development, affordable housing and housing demand issues.
 

The key findings from the report include:

• The Northern England economy is forecast to grow by an average 2.5% pa over the next five years
• Around 110,000 public sector jobs are forecast to be lost over the next five years but strong employment growth, in the financial and business service sector in particular, will lead to a net increase of almost 200,000 jobs
• Average house prices in Northern England have fallen in recent months but over the past 10 years prices have increased by 98%, the equivalent of 7.1% pa, and higher than the national average
• Prices in the main city centres have been more robust and broadly stable over the past year, often supported by restricted supply
• Lettings markets are stronger with upward pressure on rental values in all the main city centres with tight supply a feature in most locations
• Future housing demand is projected to be high in Northern England with almost 57,000 additional households expected to be created each year during 2013-2033
• Over 70% of new households are expected to be single person households
• The number of housing starts in Northern England has rebounded in recent quarters having bottomed-out in mid-2009. But at 22,500 units pa housing starts are less than half the 2006-2007 peak level
• Even if housing completions were to return to the 50,000 units a year delivered before the credit crisis, there would still be a shortfall of circa 7,000 housing units a year compared to projected demand
• With such a return unlikely, and with the gap between demand and supply widening each year, Northern England looks likely to be beset with a shortfall in housing over the next 20 years or so
• Stephen Hogg, Regional Residential Director, said: “With Northern regions set for a challenging few years it will be interesting to see how developers and Registered Providers adapt to the new but changing residential landscape.”
  
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