April 2017 - Waymark Property Update

We have just received the Land Registry information on property sales in  April 2017 so it is time for us to take our regular look at the data and provide you with an insight into what is happening in the Vale of the White Horse in relation to prices and volumes transacted.

Following on from our Q1 2017 summary and looking at a year on year comparison, there continues to be two trends emerging:

1. Prices continue to rise year on year.

2. Number of completions greatly reduced.

Prices

For April 2017, the average price across all four property types, (detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats/maisonettes) was £422,090, an increase on April 2016 of £46,857 or 11.1%.  Since 2010, that is a year on year increase of £140, 570 or 33.3%.

With reference to average price by property type for a year on year comparison, detached properties had the largest increase of 17.26% (£596,824), followed by flats/maisonettes with an increase of 15.78% (£232, 062).  For terraced properties there was an increase of 3.8% to an average of £302,000 but semi detached properties dropped 5.5% to £331,624

Number of Sales

It is when we start to look at the volume of transactions that we see a dramatic year on year reduction. With only 56 completions in April 2017 compared to 120 in April 2016 this is a fall of  114.9%.

In  April 2014 there were  202 completions meaning that over the last 3 years there has been a substantial 260.71% fall in sales.

Breakdown of Sales Across Property Types - April 2017

When we look at the property types for April 2017, we can see that detached and semi-detached properties made up almost three quarters of the total number of completions.

By doing a year on year comparison across all property types since 2010, and comparing this with April 2017, we can see that over time flats/maisonettes as a percentage of the market remains relatively unchanged with a slight reduction in both detached and semi-detached properties with terraced property increasing.

Waymark Comment

Residential property agents are well aware of the reduction in sales taking place having seen a gradual reduction over the last 3 years. The market historically fluctuates when looked at over a longer period but the current political – and by default economic – background is somewhat unusual to say the least!

What is important to stress is that this is affecting would be sellers and not buyers as we are seeing fewer properties coming to the market. Those which do are still selling and as the above figures show, prices, on average, are continuing to increase.

The Vale of White Horse continues to be a desirable place to live for a great number of reasons and we expect the level of demand for homes to be maintained in the months ahead.

We also expect the number of homes coming to the market to increase over the course of the year. We will see whether we are proved right in future Property Updates!