North West – where there’s the biggest mortgage premium
Property purchasers using a mortgage buy at a higher price in every region of Great Britain, with the exception of London.
Mortgaged buyers in the North West pay the biggest premium in terms of price, as they typically pay £31,100 more than their cash buyer counterpart, with a purchase price of £226,000 compared to £195,000.
Those using a loan similarly pay £27,600 more in the South East, with an average offer of around £401,000 compared to £373,000.
Meanwhile there’s a gap of £23,200 in the North East, where mortgaged buyers pay £169,000 and cash purchasers typically buy for £146,000.
The gap in price between cash purchases and mortgages has widened over the 20 month period in every region outside of London.
London – where cash buyers spend more
As is often the case with the property market, London has its own narrative.
In the capital purchases with cash typically cost £26,500 more, the opposite trend to the rest of the UK.
The existence of Prime London is likely to skew the data, as a relatively small number of high-value purchases in areas like Kensington and Westminster are capable of shifting up the overall average.
South West – where competition from cash buyers is strongest
Mortgaged buyers in the South West have substantial competition from cash buyers, as purchases without a mortgage accounted for 38% of transactions between December 2021 and April 2023.
Cash buyers also take significant shares in the market in the North East and Wales (both 35 per cent) and Scotland (34 per cent).
It’s the opposite story in London, where cash buyers only account for 22 per cent of purchases, compared to 78 per cent that use a mortgage.
The high house prices in the capital mean that all