The Real House Prices of Yorkshire

Here's a number that might surprise you: in Dewsbury, homes sold for almost 8% more than their asking price last year. Sellers were naming their price, and buyers were topping it. Fifteen miles away in Ilkley, the opposite was happening. Homes there were selling for nearly 3% less than asking, an average of £13,000 off, as sellers adjusted to a market that simply wouldn't meet their expectations.

We analysed 35,453 completed house sales across Yorkshire: every freehold, second-hand home that changed hands with both an asking price and a final sold price on record. The results paint a picture of a region pulling in two directions at once. Over half of all homes sold below asking price. But nearly one in four sold above it. Same county, same year, wildly different outcomes depending on where you're looking.

How did we get here?

Cast your mind back to 2021. Mortgage rates were hovering around 2%, homes were flying off the market, and sellers could name almost any price. Then interest rates climbed (and kept climbing) until monthly repayments on a typical Yorkshire home had jumped by hundreds of pounds. That didn't stop people buying, but it completely changed what they could afford to buy.

Buyers who'd been eyeing a £250,000 semi suddenly found themselves competing for £130,000 terraces instead. Areas like Bradford, Dewsbury, and Doncaster, where you could still buy a decent home without needing a six-figure household income, became battlegrounds. Sellers in those postcodes found themselves fielding multiple offers, often above asking.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the market, a very different story was playing out. Our research shows a clear pattern: the higher the price tag, the bigger the discount buyers are walking away with.

Price Bracket	Avg Asking	Avg Sold	Gap
Under £150k	£113,655	£113,536	+0.89%
£150k–£250k	£194,230	£191,147	-1.56%
£250k–£400k	£306,501	£301,467	-1.62%
£400k–£600k	£470,299	£460,915	-1.97%
£600k+	£789,169	£761,895	-2.94%

In the under-£150k bracket, nearly a third of buyers paid more than the listed price. Above £600k, the kind of detached home you'd find in parts of Harrogate, York, or Ilkley, fewer than one in five buyers paid what was asked, and sellers lost an average of £27,274 from their asking price. So if you're shopping in that bracket, you almost certainly have more negotiating power than you think.

Zoom in further, and the differences become even sharper. These are the ten Yorkshire postcodes where buyers paid the most above asking, and the ten where they negotiated the hardest.

Sold ABOVE asking:

Postcode	Area	Avg Asking	Avg Sold	Gap
WF13	Dewsbury	£185,396	£188,810	+8.0%
BD3	Bradford	£131,607	£134,903	+6.9%
DN1	Doncaster	£101,307	£101,864	+4.3%
S4	Sheffield (Burngreave)	£126,666	£129,583	+4.2%
S6	Sheffield (Hillsborough)	£241,782	£247,278	+3.1%
DN12	Doncaster (Edlington)	£137,688	£138,117	+2.8%
S7	Sheffield (Nether Edge)	£399,793	£406,427	+2.5%
HX1	Halifax	£142,175	£141,829	+2.1%
S10	Sheffield (Crosspool)	£386,985	£390,880	+1.8%
S9	Sheffield (Darnall)	£157,411	£159,537	+1.8%

Sold BELOW asking:

Postcode	Area	Avg Asking	Avg Sold	Gap
YO15	Bridlington	£258,649	£248,217	-3.6%
HU12	Hull outskirts	£241,714	£233,315	-3.6%
TS4	Middlesbrough	£152,437	£147,563	-3.2%
OL14	Todmorden	£265,304	£257,145	-3.0%
HU17	Beverley	£310,474	£301,605	-3.0%
HU19	Withernsea	£164,548	£159,418	-3.0%
BD20	Keighley	£261,695	£253,343	-2.9%
DL2	Darlington	£262,198	£254,185	-2.9%
YO16	Bridlington	£203,478	£197,660	-2.9%
LS29	Ilkley	£464,427	£451,396	-2.8%

Look at the average asking price in Sheffield's S6 (£241,782) and Hull's HU12 (£241,714). On Rightmove, those two homes look almost identical in price. But the Sheffield home sold for £247,000. The Hull home sold for £233,000. That's a £14,000 difference hidden behind the same asking price.

It's not a one-off either. In Dewsbury and Pontefract, homes were listed at similar prices, but Dewsbury sellers banked nearly 8% above asking while Pontefract sellers accepted nearly 2% below.

The gap between what sellers ask for and what buyers actually pay is wider than most people realise.

So what does this mean for you?

If you're house hunting in Yorkshire right now, whether that's competing for a terrace in Bradford or negotiating on a detached in Ilkley, the question is the same: what are homes actually selling for in this postcode? The asking price won't tell you, the sold price data will. That's the difference between guessing and knowing. And in a market this divided, it's a difference worth thousands.