February 2018 Property Update

Following on from January 2018’s Property Report, we now have the price paid data from Land Registry for February 2018.  We have crunched the numbers and reviewed the sales activity for the Vale of the White Horse.

The headline comment is that there has been a slight month on month decrease in average prices and an increase in sales volumes.

Property Prices

Looking at the price paid data for February 2018 we see a 3.13% decrease compared to prices in January 2017.  However, the year on year comparison between February 2018 and February 2017, shows an 8.28% increase. The linear trend line indicates that property is still moving upwards and that February 2018 is ahead of that trend.

Reviewing the year on year average price by property type, we see that both Detached and Terraced properties increased (6.77% and 6.7% respectively) and Semi-Detached and Flat/Maisonettes both fell (13.49% and 11.11%).  This, in turn, shows a widening of the gap between Semi-Detached and Detached for those looking to move up market with a similar view for those looking to move from a Flat/Maisonette to a Terraced or Detached property. However, the gap between the average price of Semi-Detached and Terraced property is at £19,563 compared to £93,587 last month.

Sales Volumes

Throughout 2017, we saw year on year drops in sales volume every month and for February 2018, we see that trend continuing with a fall in transactions from 166 to 60 when comparing February 2017 to February 2018.  The upside is an increase of 16 sales compared to January 2018.

Detached properties were the most popular with 27 sales followed by Terraced with 16 and then Semi Detached followed by Flats/Maisonettes with 11 and six sales respectively.

Waymark Comment

The number of completions in February is very low but not unexpected bearing in mind the low level of activity towards the end of last year. However, we are seeing an upturn in activity with more new instructions coming to the market which should ripple through to more sales over the forthcoming months. Whether these will be at a level to reverse the continued downward trend remains to be seen.

For sellers, the prices are continuing to rise on a year on year comparison although this is perhaps a reflection, in some sectors, of demand exceeding supply rather than signs of the market becoming more buoyant.