May 2017 - Waymark Property Update

We have just received the Land Registry information for prices paid for residential property in May 2017 across the whole of the Vale of the White Horse and we have analysed the data to provide you with an insight into what is happening with prices and volumes transacted in the region.

As a headline summary, the trend continues to be small year on year price increases but greatly reduced transactions.

Prices

For May 2017, the average price across all four property types (detached, semi-detached, terraced and flat/maisonettes) was £370,078a nominal £2,204 (0.6%) increase on May 2016  Taking a longer term view, from May 2010 there has been a £63,056 or 17.04% increase.

Reviewing the average prices year on year for May by property type, we see that Flat/Maisonettes had the largest increase of 25.71% or £83,590.  For what was only seven transactions, we did think this was a large increase.  On close examination, there were three Flats/Maisonettes that completed at £680,000, £475,000 and £615,000 which are likely to be skewing the figures.  Unlike April’s Property Update, detached properties had the largest drop in prices equalling 9.48% or £43,791.

Number of Sales

As previously mentioned, it is the year on year drop in transactions that is a continuing trend.  Compared to April 2017, May 2017 had exactly the same number of sales (56).

However, comparing May 2017 to May 2016, we see a drop of 75 or 133.93%.  Going back to 2010, May 2017 is the lowest year on year comparison, peaking in 2015 at 176 sales.

When looking at the completions by type for May 2017 and comparing this with the previous month's property report for April 2017, we can see that detached properties and flats/maisonettes dropped and semi-detached and terraced properties increased.

Waymark Comment

The number of sales continues to be very low when compared to 2016 which was a reduction on the two previous years.

This is a predominantly a supply side problem with significantly fewer properties coming to the market. This scarcity is good for prices but bad for buyer’s choice. For every buyer, there needs to seller so it is easy to see that a fall in sellers means we have a material reduction in buyers.

Those who are selling are still likely to be able to find a buyer but it might take a little longer than has been the case over recent years.  Importantly, however, their choice of next property is now more limited.

We expect a continued reduction in sales during the summer, but anticipate a small traditional Autumn uplift with those wanting to move before Christmas.