In Newcastle upon Tyne, two postcode districts four miles apart show how misleading a single "average house price" figure can be. NE15, covering Throckley and Newburn on the city's western edge, had a median sale price of £173,995 across all property types in 2025. NE2, which takes in Jesmond, sits at £278,000 — a headline gap of £104,005. Compare like with like, though, and the gap nearly triples: a terraced house in NE2 had a 2025 median of £444,226 against £140,000 in NE15, a difference of £304,226 (HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, fetched 24 October 2026). The "same house, different postcode" gap is almost three times wider than the all-property-types figure most people quote.
Newcastle isn't an isolated quirk. Checking the same comparison across 23 major English cities — the cheapest and priciest postcode district in each, both all-property and terrace-only — shows the terrace-only gap equals or beats the headline gap in four cities, and comes close in several more. This builds on an earlier analysis of 7 cities, which first showed that a city's headline price gap is often mostly a product of what's being sold in each area, not where it is. Widening the sample to 23 cities and 96,019 Land Registry sales shows how far that pattern stretches — and where it inverts entirely.
Why the headline gap and the same-house-type gap can diverge
An "average" sale price blends whatever happened to sell that year — flats, terraces, semis, detached houses — in whatever mix the local market produced. In NE2, 59.1% of 2025 sales were flats (many in purpose-built or converted blocks aimed at Newcastle's large student and young-professional population) against just 31.9% terraces. In NE15, flats made up only 8.7% of sales, with detached and semi-detached houses accounting for over 60%. NE2's blended median is pulled down by a flat-heavy market even though its terraced houses — classic Jesmond bay-fronted Victorian stock — are some of the most expensive in the city. NE15's blended median is propped up by a house-heavy mix even though its terraces are comparatively cheap. The headline £104,005 gap is real, but it understates the actual location premium for anyone comparing one terraced house with another.
Ranked: terrace-only gap as a share of the headline gap, 23 English cities
For each city below, the "cheapest" and "priciest" postcode district were identified by 2025 median sale price across all property types (minimum 30 sales each), restricted to districts with at least 30 terraced-house sales at both ends so the terrace comparison is statistically reliable. A ratio above 100% means the terrace-only gap is actually wider than the all-property headline gap.
| City | Cheapest district | Priciest district | Headline gap (all types) | Terrace-only gap | Terrace gap vs headline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle upon Tyne | NE15 £173,995 | NE2 £278,000 | £104,005 | £304,226 | 293% |
| Wolverhampton | WV2 £190,000 | WV4 £250,000 | £60,000 | £65,500 | 109% |
| Leicester | LE3 £205,000 | LE5 £272,750 | £67,750 | £66,000 | 97% |
| Manchester | M11 £175,000 | M21 £420,000 | £245,000 | £222,938 | 91% |
| Sheffield | S4 £106,500 | S11 £381,500 | £275,000 | £228,000 | 83% |
| York | YO24 £287,500 | YO23 £367,000 | £79,500 | £65,300 | 82% |
| Liverpool | L4 £130,000 | L18 £325,000 | £195,000 | £158,000 | 81% |
| Stoke-on-Trent | ST1 £130,000 | ST3 £175,000 | £45,000 | £35,000 | 78% |
| Southend-on-Sea | SS0 £315,000 | SS9 £405,000 | £90,000 | £66,250 | 74% |
| Coventry | CV1 £158,000 | CV5 £254,000 | £96,000 | £70,500 | 73% |
| Bradford | BD3 £101,750 | LS29* £411,000 | £309,250 | £225,000 | 73% |
| Portsmouth | PO1 £222,500 | PO6 £310,000 | £87,500 | £63,500 | 73% |
| Bristol | BS13 £290,000 | BS9 £620,000 | £330,000 | £192,300 | 58% |
| Kingston upon Hull | HU3 £119,250 | HU7 £175,000 | £55,750 | £29,998 | 54% |
| Birmingham | B18 £166,500 | B75 £400,000 | £233,500 | £125,000 | 54% |
| Leeds | LS11 £155,250 | LS22 £425,000 | £269,750 | £137,500 | 51% |
| Reading | RG1 £302,500 | RG4 £466,750 | £164,250 | £80,000 | 49% |
| Nottingham | NG7 £177,000 | NG8 £235,000 | £58,000 | £19,000 | 33% |
| Norwich | NR3 £212,000 | NR4 £315,000 | £103,000 | £25,000 | 24% |
| Southampton | SO14 £215,000 | SO18 £270,000 | £55,000 | £10,000 | 18% |
| Plymouth | PL1 £185,000 | PL9 £295,000 | £110,000 | £6,000 | 6% |
| Sunderland | SR5 £122,975 | SR3 £200,000 | £77,025 | £2,005 | 3% |
| Derby | DE1 £165,000 | DE22 £260,000 | £95,000 | −£15,000 | −16% |
*LS29 (Ilkley) is administratively part of the Bradford district despite sitting geographically within Leeds' postcode area — a known quirk of English local authority boundaries, not a data error.
The cities where the terrace gap genuinely outruns the headline
Four cities — Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Manchester — show a terrace-only gap at or above 90% of the full headline gap, with Newcastle's exceeding it by nearly 3x. The mechanism is consistent: the cheaper district in each pair sells proportionately more houses (detached, semi-detached, terraced) while the pricier district sells proportionately more flats, which drags its blended average down relative to what its actual houses cost. Manchester fits the same shape — M11 (Miles Platting/Clayton) is a detached-light market, while M21 (Chorlton-cum-Hardy) is one of the city's most sought-after terrace streetscapes, trading at a premium that a simple area-average doesn't fully capture.
The one city where the pattern reverses: Derby
Derby is the exception that proves the mechanism rather than breaking it. DE1 (central Derby) is the "cheaper" district overall at £165,000, and DE22 (Mickleover and Littleover) is "pricier" at £260,000. But DE1's terraces had a 2025 median of £180,000 — £15,000 more than DE22's £165,000. DE1 is 45.2% flats, which pulls its blended median well below what its terraces (many close to the centre) actually fetch; DE22 is a detached-and-semi-dominated suburb (70.5% combined) where terraces are a smaller, relatively affordable slice of the stock. The composition effect is strong enough in Derby's case to flip the ranking entirely — a reminder that the "cheaper" and "pricier" labels attached to an area's average can describe the mix of homes for sale there more than the land itself.
What this means when comparing two areas
None of this says one district is "worth" more than another — these are paid prices, not valuations, and the Homecost tool shows actual Land Registry transactions for any postcode rather than an estimate. What it does show is that an area's average sale price is only a reliable guide if you're buying whatever that area happens to sell most of. Anyone comparing two specific postcodes should check the price for the property type they actually want — a related ranking of near-centre terrace prices across English cities applies the same principle to first-time buyer affordability specifically. For Newcastle, you can see the individual Jesmond and Newburn sales behind this analysis by searching a postcode such as NE2 4DH directly, or read the fuller picture of Newcastle's house prices by postcode.
This analysis draws on 96,019 Land Registry residential sales completed in 2025 across the 23 English cities listed above (standard and additional price paid transactions only, flats, terraced, semi-detached and detached properties). More data-led market analysis like this is published regularly as the underlying Land Registry and EPC datasets grow.