When considering the UK housing market, it is easy to get stuck into considering only what is happening in the population rich areas of the area.  That leaves quite a large area not being thought about as dealing with a troubling situation.  That is the case in some Northern parts of the country.  Some of the North is seeing home prices on the rise, while others are becoming boarded up abandoned properties representative of most ghost towns.

The north is seeing a problem many other areas of the UK are dealing with.  That problem, which is maintaining its legs, is the difficulty in obtaining mortgage loans for first time buyers.  Without a huge deposit, and extra clean credit, it is a tough road.  That seems like more than impossible for those only earning 20,000 pounds per year.

Derek Long, National Housing Federation northern region head, commented on the current issues facing the area, saying: "There's a perfect storm coming together and it’s going to get worse in the north.  The policies that work for 'planet growth' are not necessarily going to work for 'planet X'.

"We have a disparity between the physical housing stock and the number of people in it and problems of people not investing in the housing stock.  You roll into the 21st century and you've got the economy gone bust, house prices have gone through the roof and have increased particularly sharply in the north and have nowhere to go.

"A general rule of thumb is house prices are around three to four times the income — but we have house prices 16 times the average income."