To show how dangerous it is to quote national, regional and local average property prices, we thought it would be useful to show the vast difference in each of the towns and cities reported above between the cheapest two bed terrace and the most expensive for sale at the moment on Rightmove*.
As you can see, for Belfast, if you quote the average property price you will tell people they have to have to spend £158,200 and have the associated deposit and salary to afford it. This is clearly nonsense as you can buy a two bed terrace for 48% less.
In Manchester there is an incredible range of prices. The average is £210,647, seemingly out of many peoples reach, yet a two bed terrace can be bought for 60% less: just under £85,000 while for those with serious money in this area, you can buy a 2 bed terrace for 182% more than the average at £595,000!
No surprises, London has quite the range too – although more at the top than the bottom end. With an average of £510,000, a two bed terrace can set you back for as little as £250,000 or as much as £6.65mn.
Sheffield perhaps has the best value two bed terrace for under £50k, versus it’s average of nearly £200,000, followed by Glasgow, Newcastle and Bradford.
* We have taken the ‘lowest’ and ‘highest’ advertised priced properties for each town or city, but excluded those properties being sold by auction and via Shared Ownership.
Sources: Rightmove and Hometrack
Download the full version of Kate Faulkner's price report for April 2022 here
The forecasters are still expecting the steam to come off the market this year, even with the huge increases we have seen in Q1 this year. Over time, price rises are expected to go back to their long term average of around 3-5% growth annually - especially at UK/London level.
Interestingly, London is expected to continue to be one of the lowest performers now ‘affordability’ is being held back by mortgage restrictions according to Hamptons and Savills, while Knight Frank and JLL are expecting better growth and to be fair to them. Currently, the latter appear to be more on track with London’s performance to date.
For regional forecasts, download the full report for April 2022 here
For more articles on Kate Faulkner's April 2022 report, click on the headings below:
