Worcester December Monthly Market Update
2018 set to be a year of opportunity for the Worcester property market
As one year ends and another begins, we thought we’d take a look at what’s happened in the Worcester market over the last 12 months, and what a year it has been. It’s true that something of a ‘cold front’ has been moving across most of the country, but the strong fundamentals which underpin the Worcester market mean that we’re well placed to weather any storm.
The overall average price of a home in Worcester is now £243,800, which is 16.7 per cent higher than the regional average. Over the last 12 months this has risen by 4.4 per cent compared with a rise of 3.7 per cent in the region as a whole, so the area has outperformed the market in that sense. Since 2000, the average level of house price growth has been 8.4 per cent per year.
There were 1,930 sales in our area in the last year, compared with 2,985 in the 12 months which preceded it. Comparisons with 2016 need to be handled with care because of the big spike in sales before the stamp duty rise in April. The most common type of property to change hands were detached homes which accounted for 32.9 per cent of all sales.
The average monthly rent of a property in our area is £650, which is 10.2 per cent higher than the regional average. Rents range between £420 for a room and £1,070 for a property with four or more bedrooms. We’re waiting to see what happens to rent level because the stamp duty changes made by George Osborne may have put off some ‘casual landlords’ from expanding their portfolios, limiting supply, but the investment opportunities available to serious investors may be too much to resist.
Our expectation for 2018 is that the housing market will represent a fairly stable part of the overall UK economy. Whatever you may hear about Brexit and the financial markets, the property market is just taking its usual course, as one property market cycle ends and another one begins. Mortgage lending is holding up and there’s nothing resembling the credit crunch on the horizon because lending has been fairly sensible and ‘froth’ has not been allowed to build up on local prices.
Given the natural advantages the Worcester property market has, we’re expecting 2018 to be a tremendous year for everyone involved in the housing market – buyers, sellers, landlords and renters alike. If you’re in any of those categories and want some advice on how best to make the property market work for you, please give us a call and we can give you a more complete lowdown on what we expect in 2018.
Annual sales levels split by property type
In this analysis we’ve looked at how sales of property types have stacked up over time (literally!). For each of the last eight years we show what number of sales are accounted for by flats, terraces, semi-detached and detached homes. This analysis is very useful because it shows not only the total number of sales, but the types of properties it comprises.
Average property prices by type
Quarterly analyses of house price movements are a great way of seeing year-on-year changes. This chart is a particularly useful way to look at the market because it strips out seasonality, which can distort things and lead us to show things that might be inaccurate.
Wealth categories
The profile of wealth is a fairly good gauge of the day-to-day reality of residents the local housing market. The government has drawn attention to the large numbers of people in the country who are ‘JAM’s or ‘just about managing’, and have pledged to help their property aspirations in the 2017 Budget. This chart shows the profile of our area based on their socio-demographic profile.
Matt Nicol
Managing Director