Hull's median home sold for £143,000 in 2025. Drive twenty minutes north into the East Riding of Yorkshire and the same Land Registry data shows a median of £230,000 — a gap of £87,000, or 61%, across 9,541 recorded sales in the two neighbouring authorities (HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, 2025 completions, fetched 22 October 2026).
Add in the yearly cost of actually living there and the gap doesn't close — it widens. East Riding of Yorkshire's 2026-27 council tax Band D charge is £2,466.08, against Hull City Council's £2,295.04. Unlike some neighbouring-authority comparisons, where the pricier place to buy turns out to have the cheapest council tax bill, Hull and East Riding move the same way on both counts: cheaper to buy, cheaper to run.
The buy side: £87,000 apart
| Hull (E06000010) | East Riding of Yorkshire (E06000011) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 median sale price | £143,000 | £230,000 |
| 2025 transactions (category A, houses and flats) | 3,001 | 6,540 |
| 25% deposit at the median | £35,750 | £57,500 |
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, 2025 sales, category A (standard market), fetched 22 October 2026.
Most of the gap is a stock-mix story rather than a like-for-like one. Hull's 2025 sales were 53.0% terraced houses (1,592 of 3,001) — a dense Victorian and Edwardian urban core. East Riding of Yorkshire's sales were 37.4% detached (2,446 of 6,540) and 37.4% semi-detached (2,447), with terraces making up only 20.0% (1,310) — closer to the market-town and village stock around Beverley, Driffield and the Wolds.
| Property type | Hull share | East Riding share |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | 10.0% | 37.4% |
| Semi-detached | 31.6% | 37.4% |
| Terraced | 53.0% | 20.0% |
| Flat | 5.4% | 5.2% |
A closer look at the HU postcode area's own internal price split found the same stock pattern inside postcodes that straddle both authorities, and a deeper dive into Beverley and the Haltemprice villages found individual East Riding villages trading between £200,000 and £350,000 in 2025 — all above the Hull citywide figure.
The run side: tax, stamp duty and the mortgage
Both medians sit below England's £300,000 first-time buyer relief ceiling, so a first-time buyer pays no Stamp Duty Land Tax in either authority. A home-mover (not a first-time buyer) pays more in East Riding mainly because the price is higher, not because of a different tax treatment:
| Hull (£143,000) | East Riding (£230,000) | |
|---|---|---|
| SDLT, home-mover | £360 | £2,100 |
| SDLT, first-time buyer | £0 | £0 |
| Council tax Band D, 2026-27 | £2,295.04 | £2,466.08 |
Source: HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax residential rates, calculated via Homecost's SDLT tool; gov.uk council tax statistics 2026-27. Both fetched 22 October 2026.
On an illustrative 75% loan-to-value, 25-year repayment mortgage at the Bank of England's quoted 4.32% five-year fixed rate — unchanged since April 2026 — the monthly cost splits like this:
| Hull | East Riding | |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage (75% LTV, 25yr, 4.32%) | £585.23/month | £941.27/month |
| Council tax (Band D ÷ 12) | £191.25/month | £205.51/month |
| Combined monthly | £776.48 | £1,146.78 |
The East Riding combined figure runs 47.7% higher than Hull's — a wider gap than the 61% difference in purchase price alone, once the larger mortgage is added to the slightly higher council tax bill. The mortgage, not the council tax, accounts for most of the extra monthly cost.
Why there's no inversion here
In the West Yorkshire comparison, Leeds has the priciest homes in the county and one of the cheapest council tax bills — a genuine mismatch between what a buyer pays upfront and what they pay annually afterwards. Hull and East Riding don't produce that effect: the authority that's harder to buy into also carries the higher Band D bill. That's not a fixed rule either — a similar comparison across Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster shows a mixed set of outcomes depending on each council's own tax-setting history, not a pattern that always points one way.
A single street shows the range inside just one of these authorities: Brooklands Road in Hull recorded 61 terraced sales between 2002 and 2023, from £53,950 to £112,000 — a spread no single council-tax average can capture.
The takeaway
Based on 9,541 Land Registry transactions across the two authorities in 2025 and the 2026-27 council tax figures published by both councils, East Riding of Yorkshire costs more than Hull on every measure checked here: purchase price, stamp duty for a home-mover, council tax, and the monthly cost of a mortgage. None of that says which area is the better place to live — only what the recorded numbers show for buying and running a home in each, calculated on a standard set of assumptions that won't match every buyer's actual deposit, rate or circumstances.
This is general information, not financial or tax advice. Mortgage rates, stamp duty eligibility and council tax bands depend on individual circumstances — speak to a qualified mortgage adviser or conveyancer before acting.