News & insights Property

Why we keep investing in North East property

Low entry prices, rents rising faster than anywhere else in England, and a region we know street by street. The case for owning property up here.

Property5 min read

People sometimes ask why a group with businesses in the UK, Dubai and now the US keeps buying buildings in the North East. The short answer is that the numbers work, and we know the ground.

Low prices, rising rents

The North East has the lowest average private rent of any English region, at £762 a month in December 2025. It also saw the fastest-rising rents in England over the year, up 7.9%.1

House prices tell a similar story. For most of 2025, the region recorded the highest annual house price growth in England, reaching 7.9% in the twelve months to July.2

For a long-term owner, that’s the combination you want. It costs less to get in, and the income keeps climbing. In the South East, rents often barely cover the cost of the building. Up here, the maths still works on day one.

Affordable doesn’t mean standing still

The region has changed enormously in twenty years. Newcastle and Sunderland city centres have been rebuilt around offices, homes and nightlife, and tens of thousands of students arrive at the region’s universities every year, many of whom stay on. Since 2024 the North East has also had its own elected mayor and a combined authority with more say over how investment is spent locally.

None of that guarantees anything. But it does mean demand for good space, whether that’s a flat near the city centre or a unit on a busy road, keeps growing.

The Tyne Bridge lit up at night, reflected in the River Tyne
Newcastle and Gateshead Quayside, where the river frontage has been transformed over the past two decades.

Commercial, residential and everything in between

Our portfolio covers warehouses and logistics space, shops, leisure venues and homes. Each does a different job. Residential gives steady monthly income. Commercial tenants tend to sign longer leases. Leisure is where we can add the most value ourselves.

It’s also why we look at leisure differently to most investors. A padel club, for example, is really a property decision, as we wrote last summer.

Knowing the ground

We’re a North East business. We know which streets are on the way up, which landlords are thinking about selling, and which buildings have sat empty for too long. That kind of knowledge doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet, and it’s hard for investors from outside the region to match.

What we’re buying next

We’re still buying: mixed-use buildings in town centres, commercial units that could be put to better use, and residential blocks that need some care. If you’re selling a property in the region, or you’re an agent with something off-market, we’d like to hear about it.

Sources

  1. Office for National Statistics, “Private rent and house prices, UK: January 2026”. ons.gov.uk
  2. Office for National Statistics, “Private rent and house prices, UK: September 2025”. ons.gov.uk
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