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UK property market diversity records £35.5m house price gap

LEEK, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 11: A couple are seen looking at houses for sale at an estate agents in Market Town of Leek on November 11, 2020 in Leek, England. The United Kingdom will continue to impose lockdown measures until December 2 in an attempt to curb transmissions of the coronavirus (COVID-19)   (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
There was a £35,495,000 gap between the most expensive property sold at £35,500,000 in London and the least expensive sold in Sunderland at £15,000. Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images (Nathan Stirk via Getty Images)

There was a £35.5m ($49.4m) gap between the bottom and top of the UK property market last year, new research has shown.

Data analysis from real estate experts Astons, which looked at sold price records from the Land Registry across 20 major cities, showed that across England and Wales, 493,383 residential transactions took place with an average sold price of £245,000.

However, there was a £35,495,000 gap between the most expensive property sold at £35,500,000 in London and the least expensive sold in Sunderland at £15,000.

The London market remained the driving force of the UK property sector, which was not only home to the highest number of transactions of all major cities (51,378), but it was also the largest price gap.

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The lowest residential transaction across London in 2020 was for a sale of just £75,000, meaning that the capital saw a £35.43m gap between the very top and bottom end of the property market.

Bournemouth pulled in second place for most diverse property market, with a gap of £6.81m between the most (£6.85m) and least (£44,000) expensive property purchases.

Oxford saw the highest minimum property sold price at £100,000, however, the city was still home to the third-largest gap with the highest sold price hitting £4.5m; a gap of £4.4m.

Other UK cities with high property price gaps between the very top and bottom of their respective markets were Birmingham (£3.4m), Cambridge (£3.3m), Bristol (£2.9m), Leeds (£2.5m), Manchester (£2.2m), Sheffield (£2m) and Newcastle (£1.9m).

READ MORE: UK house prices expected to fall as lockdown, stamp duty deadline and job cuts weigh

At the opposite end of the scale, Sunderland took the crown for the least expensive transactions of 2020. It not only had the most expensive property in the city selling for £800,000,but it was also home to the smallest gap between the top and bottom end of the market (£785,000).

“There is a wealth of diversity within the market and while property prices might be some of the highest in Europe, there are options at a variety of price thresholds,” Eric Chou, senior real estate consultant for Astons, said.

“There is a common misconception that prime property can really only be found in London, but this simply isn’t the case. There have been transactions for two million pound or more across nine major cities over the last year, with a further eight breaching the one million pound mark.

“While London is, of course, the draw for many foreign investors, these major regional cities offer the chance of purchasing a prime property to perhaps a greater extent. Not only is the market generally more affordable, but the size of home available across the multi-million-pound market is likely to be far more substantial than those found in the capital.”

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