The Warminster property market has seen some interesting
movement in house prices over the last couple of months, as property values in
the Wiltshire Council area rose by 1.6% in September, to leave annual price
growth at 10.5%. These compare well to the national figures where property
prices across the UK saw a monthly uplift of 0.42%, meaning the annual property
values across the Country are 8.3% higher, this is all despite the constraining
factors of Stamp Duty changes in the spring and more recently our friend
Brexit.
Looking at the figures for the last 18 months makes even
more fascinating reading, whereby house prices are 14.5% higher, again thought
provoking when compared to the national average figure of 13.6% higher.
However, it gets more remarkable when we look at how the
different sectors of the Warminster market are performing. Over the last 18
months, in the Wiltshire Council area, the best performing type of property was
the semi, which outperformed the area average by 0.75% whilst the worst
performing type was the apartment/flat, which under-performed the area average
by 2.01%.
Now the difference doesn’t sound that much, but remember two
things, this is only over eighteen months and the gap of 2.7% (the difference
between the semi at +0.75% and apartments at -2.01%) converts into a few
thousand pounds disparity, when you consider the average price paid for a
semi-detached property in Warminster itself over the last 12 months was
£219,100 and the average price paid for a Warminster apartment was £99,100 over
the same time frame.
I know all the Warminster landlords and homeowners will want to know how each of the property types have performed, so this is what has happened to property prices over the last 18 months in the area...
• Overall
Average +14.5%
• Detached +14.5%
• Semi
Detached +15.3%
• Terraced +14.5%
• Apartments
+12.2%
So what does all this mean to Warminster homeowners and
Warminster landlords and what does the future hold?
When I looked at the month-by-month figures for the area,
you can quite clearly see there is a slight tempering of the Warminster
property market over these last few months. I have mentioned in previous
articles, on my blog, that the number of properties on the market in Warminster
has increased this summer, but on the whole demand still seems to outstrip
supply.
Some of that growth in Warminster property values throughout
early 2016 may have come about because of a surge in house purchase activity,
an indirect result of the increase in stamp duty on second homes from April,
thus providing a temporary boost to prices.
However, it may be possible the recent pattern of robust
employment growth, growing real earnings and low borrowing costs will tilt the
demand/supply seesaw in favour of sellers and exert upward pressure on prices
once again in the quarters ahead.
...And Warminster property values, assuming that everything
goes well with Brexit, I believe in twelve months’ time we should see values in
the order of 4% to 8% higher.
