There is little doubt that buying or selling a house is more difficult because of the credit crunch.

However, while the recent financial problems besetting the UK are far from over, the property market in Sunderland is faring well.

Click here to download the property podcast

Sunderland-based estate agent Michael Hodgson, left, who recently won the North East Estate Agent of the Year award, said things are upbeat on Wearside.

He said: "There is a sense of caution with buyers at the moment, but people are still actively looking for new homes.

"The media have been scaremongering, but I'm confident that the Sunderland market is strong."

David Holmes has owned Chase Holmes Estate Agents for six years, and opened its fifth branch in Sunderland in January.

He said: "A lot of the stuff in the press is hype. If first-time buyers could get mortgages it would sort everything out.

"People still want to buy and sell, so if we can get some more money into the mortgage market it will pick up sooner rather than later.

"We're still selling property every day, but at the right price and to the right buyer.

"We're using more creativity to match people to properties including online visual tours of properties and encouraging vendors to incorporate a vendor deposit which allows first-time buyers to make an offer."

A £50bn cash injection from the Bank of England to help banks lend money to each other could give first-time house buyers in Sunderland some much needed relief and boost the property market across Wearside.

After the banking crisis in America, banks in the UK have become cautious, preferring to provide mortgages for people with proven credit, and halting loans to other banks.

This has hit first-time buyers in the region hard as they struggle to secure mortgages, and led to a stagnation in the housing market and falling house prices.

Without first-time buyers, other homeowners cannot move up the property market, because they cannot sell their starter homes.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has backed the new plan, and urged banks and lenders to pass on the £50bn to struggling borrowers.

The National Association of Estate Agents' (NAEA) latest report showed first-time buyers are beginning to feel the strain, as their market share dropped from 11.7 per cent in February to 8.3 per cent in March.

NAEA President, Stewart Lilly, said: "It is imperative that the shackles are released on the mortgage market so consumer confidence can be rebuilt, allowing the market to stabilise."

The most recent numbers from the latest Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) suggested a further drop in North East house prices, making the Bank's Special Liquidity Scheme encouraging news for the region's property market.

National Rics spokesman, Jeremy Leaf, said: "The next six months will be a crucial period for homeowners; but would-be buyers with larger deposits may see this market as an opportunity to acquire property in areas to which they could not previously aspire to as recently as the end of 2007."

According to the Rics survey, the ratio of completed sales compared with the stock of unsold property on the market fell to 24.8 per cent, down from 26.3 per cent in March of this year, with both sales expectations and price expectations falling.

Root of the trouble

Current troubles in the UK property market have their roots in the American banking crisis, which surfaced in 2007.

The U.S. mortgage market is having serious problems with its "sub-prime" sector: mortgages taken on by people with low incomes.

The sub-prime sector is made up of mortgages for people who would not normally get credit because of their low income and lack of assets.

These "ninja" mortgages (No Income, No Job, No Assets) worked well for lenders and banks despite the risks, until gas and food became more expensive.

As interest rates and the cost of living rose, and fixed-rate sub-prime mortgages came to an end, more and more Americans with ninja mortgages have defaulted on their payments, causing a banking crisis as the risk
to lenders becomes a reality.

In turn, financial investors have become cautious because they do not know which lenders and banks will be affected by these unstable debts.

Northern Rock was the biggest casualty of the subsequent global credit crunch: though it was financially sound, it could no longer produce cash up front, and crashed.

View from the agents

Bill Kimmitt co-owns Kimmitt and Roberts, an Estate Agent with branches across the region.

Since the end of last year there has been a reduction in the number of transactions. There are not as many houses selling and not as many coming on the market, but the properties that are priced correctly are selling.

There's no appreciable deduction in property value. Prices aren't going up, they have just levelled off. Our offices are still busy.
Region to region, the North East is faring very well.

Ashley O'Carroll is a partner with Peter Heron Estate Agents, and has been in the industry for 12 years.

As far as we're concerned the market is still very active and houses on popular streets are still selling. The key is getting the correct evaluation for your property.

Sunderland is a very safe, stable market compared to the rest of the country and to other places in the Northeast.

Thomas Watson, runs Thomas Watson Estate Agents with his wife, Anthea. He has been in the industry for 25 years.

An awful lot of people read the national papers which are very South East orientated. We're not untouched by the difficulties here and we have been affected by Northern Rock, but hopefully the Bank of England will make some changes to improve liquidity which should filter through.

Once the first-time buyers get a break then that will improve the whole market.

I think traditional areas like Ashbrooke, High Barnes and East Herrington are probably too expensive for first-time buyers, so I would recommend areas like Millfield and Pallion. Former council properties can be really excellent, affordable buys, too."

Sunderland post code prices

SR1: Most expensive street, Toward Road. Average Price £250,000. Least expensive street, Stafford Street. Average Price £52,998.

SR2: Most expensive, Ledbury Road. Average Price £343,500. Least expensive, Bishopton Street. Average Price £45,133.

SR3: Most expensive, Tunstall Lodge Park. Average Price £435,000. Least expensive, Townsend Square. Average Price £46,867.

SR4: Most expensive, Offerton. Average Price £275,000. Least expensive, Palmerston Road. Average Price £33,750.

SR5: Most expensive, Haversham Park. Average Price £249,190. Least expensive, Exmouth Square. Average Price £30,000.

SR6: Most expensive, West Park Road. Average Price £780,000. Least expensive, Howick Park. Average Price £79,495.

* Statistics from www.ourproperty.co.uk
Based on average sale price over last two years