Bexley Borough Apartments Out Perform Property Market Average by 28%
According to the Land Registry's latest House
Price Index for Bexleyheath and the surrounding locality, the value of apartments/flats
are rising at a faster rate than terraced/town houses, semi-detached properties
and even detached property.
Values of apartments in Bexleyheath have
increased by 7.26 % over the past year, which is proportionally 28% more than
the Bexleyheath average rise of 5.66%. The last time flats/apartments in Bexleyheath
out performed all the other types of property, by such a gulf, was back in the winter
of 2004. For comparison, the other property types performed as follows:
- · Detached homes rose by 5.32%
- · Semi-detached homes rose by 4.89%
- · Terraced/Town-Houses rose by 5.07%
This moderately increasing rate of property
value growth is opportune – but no one should confuse it with a strong and
vigorous healthy Bexleyheath property market. Instead, it is somewhat an
indicator of the long-lasting lack of property on the market. In fact, I have
spoken about the lack of homes for sale in Bexley Borough on a number of
occasions and whilst it isn’t as bad as it was 12 months ago – choice is quite
limited for buyers.
The average property value in Bexleyheath
now stands at £385,300.
When split down into property types:
- · Bexleyheath Apartments at £232,700
- · Bexleyheath Detached at £529,900
- · Bexleyheath Semi-Detached at £420,100
- · Bexleyheath Terraced/Town-House at £347,500
So why have Bexleyheath apartments performed so
well, and is it just a Bexleyheath thing? When I scrutinised the figures for
the rest of the UK, it appears that apartments are pacemakers in the clear
majority of the country. Of the 379 local authority areas in the UK, the value
of apartments is rising faster than detached, semi-detached and terraced
houses in 320 of them.
So, should Bexleyheath apartment owners be
getting out the Champagne? Well, I would keep it on ice as the Land Registry
figures are notorious for short term fluctuations. It’s hard to have faith in the
fact that Bexleyheath house values rose rapidly last month given that, in the
last six months, the Land Registry has frequently made downward revisions to
their first published House Price Index figures.
Thankfully, the bigger picture from the Council
of Mortgage Lenders (CML) stated that home buying activity last month was up 2%
over the same month in 2016 – not bad as we have had the Autumn, Winter and now
Spring since Brexit. The CML stated first time buyer’s levels of affordability was
being squeezed and that the average amount borrowed by those first-time buyers
dropped slightly last month, but the overall amount borrowed (by all buyers)
was an impressive 12% higher than the same month in 2016.
So, what next for the Bexley Borough Property
market? I believe the uplift in the values of apartments is a short-term blip.
The real issue is with the way wage growth might not keep up with inflation as
the effects of 2016 exchange rate sucks in inflation (meaning real wage growth
stagnates). This will mean buyer demand growth will be curtailed and with
property values already so full, I believe a renewed hastening in house price
growth is unlikely.
I believe we are starting to return to the housing
market we saw in the mid 1990’s, Steady demand, steady supply – nothing silly
when it comes to house price growth. Therefore, I believe, with what is
happening around us – this isn’t a bad thing at all.
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