Property sourcing across the North East·Sunderland, Durham, Teesside & Tyneside kola@mikebells.co.uk·Email is best
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The blog

Notes from the patch — what the numbers actually said, with the evidence and the arithmetic shown. No hype, no addresses, no invented rents.

Rent · 3 November 2026 · 3 min read

What price works in your town

Seven hundred and fifty houses across the North East. Three hundred of them three-bedroom. Five that clear the costs at today's mortgage rates. I measured that properly this week, for the…

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Comparables · 1 November 2026 · 3 min read

I compared 221 houses to their own street. Here is what "below market value" actually means

Every week someone sends me a listing that looks cheap. It is usually on a street where nothing has sold for years, next to a new-build estate, or it is not the whole house. So I did the…

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Mortgage rates · 5 November 2026 · 3 min read

The Bank of England just took £5,400 off what you can pay for a house

The Bank of England raised the base rate to 4% today. It is the first rise since 2023, and the vote was 9–0 — nobody on the committee argued for holding it. If you are buying a house to…

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The screen · 8 November 2026 · 4 min read

3,777 properties. Three that pay.

I pulled every property for sale in the North East under £120,000 from Property Engine's live search — no retirement homes, no new builds, no auctions, nothing sold, nothing withdrawn.…

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Town by town · 2 November 2026 · 3 min read

Sunderland or Middlesbrough? What £250 a month looks like in each

If you are buying your first rental in the North East, you have probably narrowed it to two towns and you are now comparing asking prices. Asking prices will not tell you which to buy. What…

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