Home buyers in the West Midlands pay the UK’s biggest premium to live in a rural location.
In percentage terms, the regional gap between the average price of a rural home, in areas such as Barnt Green or Knowle, and a similar property in an urban area is a massive 59 per cent, the Halifax found
The price of a typical rural property in the West Midlands is £231,996 where a similar urban property in £145,801 - a price differential of £86,196.
In the past four years, the gap between rural and urban dwellings has been narrowing, with the average price of a home in an urban area rising at five times the rate of one in the countryside, at 10 per cent compared with just two per cent.
Halifax said this could reflect a recent increase in first-time buyers coming into the market to snap up properties. First-time buyers account for two-fifths (40 per cent) of house purchases using a mortgage in rural areas, but in towns and cities they make up more than half (52 per cent) of such transactions.
Nationally, lenders have been handing out more mortgages in recent months to first-time buyers than in any other period since the credit crunch started. This has been attributed to the introduction of Government-aided purchase schemes.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “Country living remains a widespread aspiration, but relatively high prices put rural homes out of the reach for many. Potential first-time buyers are particularly affected and consequently they account for a smaller proportion of homebuyers in the countryside than in urban areas.”
