The shift is largely attributed to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) threshold changes introduced in April 2025. These lowered the nil-rate threshold to £125,000, disproportionately affecting higher-value transactions concentrated in the South.
How has the north-south house price gap changed?
That regional rebalancing is echoed in wider house price data. Nationwide Building Society reported this month that the gap between average house prices in the North and South of England had narrowed to its lowest level in 13 years. London recorded the weakest regional price growth in the first nine months of 2026, averaging 1.3%.
Nationwide found that the average price of a home in northern England now sits at almost 58% of the average price in the South. These figures are up from a low of roughly 48% in 2017, and consistent with those in the Access Legal report.
Remortgage activity and conveyancing capacity
Access Legal’s full report situates the regional shift within a broader recovery in transaction activity. Its data shows 1.09 million transactions completed across FY25/26, the highest annual total in recent years. This was driven by a sustained remortgage wave as 1.8 million fixed-rate deals matured over the period, reaching a two-year high in August 2026.
That remortgage wave has coincided with a squeeze on conveyancing capacity nationally. Separate research from IRN Legal Reports found that the number of solicitors practising in residential conveyancing had fallen to 10,724 by January 2026. This translates to a drop of more than 2,000 since the end of 2021, even as transaction volumes grew for a second consecutive year. Average transaction times across the market reached 123 days to completion, according to Access Legal’s report.
