Estate agent sees 10 percent rise in house prices in Carlisle area

H&H Land & Estates said that its Carlisle office achieved 99.8 percent of asking price on all properties sold in August, and has seen price increases of around 10 percent since the beginning of the year.

Paul Doyle, branch manager of the company’s city centre branch, said that "people are starting to realise" that property in Carlisle offers good value for money compared to many other parts of the UK.

"Carlisle is very much becoming a sought-after place to live and achieving this level of results demonstrates that property in and around the city is in hot demand.

"Currently demand is higher than we have experienced in a long time, but the number of properties coming to the market is low. This demand has resulted in the fact that, at the moment, we are dealing with a real supply issue.

"There have always been people who want to retire here, but we have found this trend is changing; young professionals wanting to work from home more often, needing a little more space, can find much larger properties here."

This rise in demand from younger people and lower supply on the market matches what other local estate agents are seeing.

Paul said that last week they put a city centre bungalow on the market, and had three viewings booked within an hour of sending it out to their mailing list.

They expect it will be sold by the end of the week.

"Taking into account the shortage of supply and exceptional current demand, as we head into the final third of the year, we are anticipating that prices will remain stable and perhaps even see some growth,” he added.

While good news for many homeowners, a potential rise may not be welcomed by many of the city's workers hoping to buy a home.

ONS data from NOMIS suggests that the median weekly earnings for employees living in the area in 2020 were £551, lower than both the wider Cumbria figure of £560 and the national average of £587.