You don’t get much further from the seaside than Derbyshire, a county landlocked at the heart of England. During lockdowns house-hunters simply couldn’t get enough of coastal property, and prices in Wales and the West Country boomed. But three years after the start of the pandemic, a new property powerhouse is emerging.
According to the latest UK House Price Index, prices in North East Derbyshire are up by almost 20 per cent year on year, to £259,000. Across the way, prices in the Derbyshire Dales are up 18 per cent year on year, to an average of £362,000. This performance would be impressive in a strong economy, never mind against the backdrop of rising interest rates and spiralling inflation. And put into a national context it is even more surprising – UK house prices fell more than 3 per cent in the year to March, the largest annual drop since July 2009, according to the latest figures from Nationwide.
It has achieved a happy medium where house prices aren’t so stupidly high that young people have no chance of getting on the housing ladder, but where employment opportunities are good
Together, the Derbyshire Dales and North East Derbyshire cover the south-eastern corner of the Peak District National Park – pretty towns such as Bakewell, Hathersage and Ashbourne – plus the suburbs and countryside south of Sheffield, towns and villages with wonderfully satisfying names like Wingerworth and Crowhole.
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