Northern cities hit record highs as commuter towns stay below their 2022 peak

Research by ValuQ: we analysed HM Land Registry's UK House Price Index to April 2026, comparing each town's latest average price against its own record high to see who has clawed back the ground lost in the 2022 correction and who is still in the hole. This is part of the ValuQ Property Watch series.

Which cities just hit record house-price highs?

Six English cities recorded their highest-ever average prices in April 2026. All six are affordable cities in the North and the Midlands, and all six are now worth more than at any point in the Land Registry's records, which run back to 1995.

Which commuter towns are still below their 2022 peak?

A different picture sits an hour from London. Across the commuter belt, average prices peaked in late 2022 or early 2023 and have not recovered since. An owner selling in one of these towns today would, on average, get less than the town's homes fetched more than three years ago.

Why have the commuter towns not recovered?

The split comes down to affordability under higher interest rates. The Bank of England base rate has sat at 3.75% since its June 2026 hold, well above the near-zero rates of the early 2020s, so larger mortgages cost far more than they did at the 2022 peak. Expensive southern homes need the biggest loans, which is why demand and prices have softened most there, while cheaper northern and Midlands homes need smaller mortgages and have kept rising.

The pattern matches the national indices. The Halifax House Price Index for May 2026 put the North East up 3.1% over the year while the South East fell 2.1%, and Zoopla's index on 28 May 2026 showed northern regions growing 2% to 3.6% a year while southern markets were flat to falling.

What does this mean for your own home?

A town average is a blunt number. Within any of these towns, some streets and property types have held their value while others have slipped further, so the headline figure rarely matches what your specific home would sell for. ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, which is the way to see what your home is actually worth today rather than guessing from an index.

What it means if you are selling

• Do not anchor to the price a neighbour got in 2022; in many commuter towns that number is now above the market.
• Price to today's evidence. Recent sold prices for your street and property type matter far more than the borough average.
• Get more than one valuation. The spread between agents on the same home is often wider than the gap between this year and last.

What it means if you are buying

• In the towns still below peak, there is room to negotiate, especially on homes that have sat on the market.
• In the record-high cities, competition is stronger, so move quickly on well-priced homes and do not expect a discount on the asking price.

If you own in a commuter town, the headline can sting: your home may be worth less than a neighbour sold for in 2022. But an average hides as much as it shows. The town's number is not your home's number, and the only way to know which side of the line you sit on is to see what local agents would actually price it at today.

How we did this

ValuQ analysed the average-price series in HM Land Registry's UK House Price Index for each town, using data to April 2026 released on 17 June 2026. For every town we found its highest-ever monthly average price and compared it with the April 2026 figure to measure how far prices have recovered. A town is counted as at a record high when April 2026 is its highest reading on record. All figures are nominal and not adjusted for inflation.

ValuQ Property Watch is ValuQ's weekly research series, built on our own analysis of public housing data. ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side valuations from competing local estate agents, and homeowners never pay.