Tag Archives: house
Average house prices in British seaside towns up by a third since 2005
House prices have increased, on average, by a third across British seaside towns over the past decade, according to the latest research. Prices are up by 31% or £49,207, equivalent to £410 per month, from £159,522 to £208,729, the data from UK lender the Halifax shows. However, there is a marked north/south divide in property values in seaside towns, with all 10 of the most expensive seaside towns in southern England, and seven in the south west alone. Salcombe at £672,874 in Devon and Sandbanks at £614,726 in Dorset are the two most expensive seaside towns in Great Britain and both are in the south west. Outside this region the most expensive seaside towns are Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast with an average price of £413,393, Lymington in the New Forest at £404,781 and East Wittering in West Sussex at £330,146. Outside southern England, the most expensive seaside areas are the Scottish towns of St. Andrews at £294,586, North Berwick at £294,076 and Stonehaven at £243,741 while in Wales the most expensive is the Mumbles at £271,349. The biggest house price rises in the average price of seaside towns over the past decade were all recorded in Scotland. Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire recorded the largest rise, with a 109% increase in property values from £63,540 in 2005 to £132,920 in 2015. Lerwick in the Shetlands and Peterhead in Aberdeenshire saw the next largest rises both 102%. A further 15 coastal towns out of a total of 59 surveyed have recorded price increases of at least 50% since 2005. Partly due to the substantial rises in the top performing towns, the average house price in Scotland's seaside towns rose by 38% between 2005 and 2014, exceeding the 31% increase for Great Britain as a whole. Newtonhill saw the largest house price increase over the last year, going from £199,902 in 2013 to £240,899 in 2014, a rise of 21%, followed by Dalgety Bay at 16% and Macduff at 15%. The research also shows an east/west divide in house prices in Scottish seaside towns, with nine of the 10 most expensive seaside towns being located on the eastern coastline while all of the 10 least expensive seaside towns are in western Scotland. Port Bannantyne is the most inexpensive in Scotland with an average price of £73,539. Outside Scotland, the biggest increase in average prices during the last 10 years was recorded in Salcombe with growth of 69%, followed by Workington in Cumbria up 60% and Brighton up 58%. House prices have continued to increase in several seaside towns over the past year. Newtonhill in Aberdeenshire and Shoreham by the Sea recorded the largest average price growth in the last 12 months, with increases of 20%, four times the average increase for all seaside towns in the past year which was 5%. The next biggest price rises were in Sandwich in Kent and Watchet in Somerset, both with year on year growth of 18%, followed by Seaton on the… Continue reading
Scottish house prices rise twice as fast as in England and Wales
House prices in Scotland have increased by 11.2% in the last 12 months, twice as fast as the 5.6% seen in England and Wales, the latest index shows. In March alone average property prices in Scotland increased by 5.4% or £9,200 ahead of the new Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) being introduced in April, taking the average price of a home to £178,930. At the same time completes sales increased 29%, mainly at the top end of the market where the new tax is higher. Indeed, some 36 homes worth £1 million or more were sold, the highest number ever in a single month. Edinburgh and the surrounding area saw an especially strong surged, with East Lothian prices up 11.8% in one month, the Your Move/Acadata index also shows. ‘In what would have been an unimaginable trend just a year ago, house prices are now rising faster in Scotland than in London,’ said Christine Campbell, regional managing director of Your Move. She pointed out that part of the surge was due to a short term scramble to avoid the new LBTT which was introduced on 01 April. ‘For the top of the market especially, a pre-deadline rush has boosted the average price paid in March, so the latest surge in prices is unlikely to be sustained to quite the same extent in April under the new regime,’ she explained. But she also pointed out that even before the one-off effect of looming tax changes, Scottish house prices were rising on an annual basis by 6% in February, already on a par with 6.8% south of the border. As prices cool across the rest of Britain, Scotland has seen the opposite trend, with prices accelerating upwards. ‘Once the new tax regime has become an established feature of the property market, the effects could be different again. On the face of things, there are clear benefits for those buying a home for less than £254,000 as they will have to pay less tax than under the old system,’ said Campbell. ‘But it remains to be seen if this will be quickly countered by higher prices for these properties, as buyers with a little more buying capacity just bid up the average price for these homes. On the other hand, by far the clearest effect is already for the top of the market. There were a record number of million pound transactions in March as wealthy buyers rush to save thousands before the onset of the new law,’ she explained. Continue reading
Irish property prices on the rise again and now up 16.8% year on year
After two months of falling prices, property in Ireland is on the rise again with values up 0.9% across the country, according to the latest index. Residential property prices are now up 16.8% on an annual basis and in Dublin they are 22.8% higher than March 2014 after a 1.1% monthly rise. A breakdown of the figures from the Central Statistics Office shows that in Dublin house prices rose by 1% in March whilst apartment prices increased by 2.1%. However, a CSO spokesman pointed out that it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series. Outside of Dublin residential property prices rose by 0.7% in March and prices are up 10.7% compared with March 2014. Prices still need to catch up considerably before reaching anywhere near their peak levels of 2007. At national level prices were 38.2% lower than their peak level. Dublin house prices are 36.9% behind, apartment prices 42.2% lower than their peak and Dublin residential property prices overall were 38.7% lower than their highest level. Outside of Dublin residential property prices are still 41.5% lower than their highest level in 2007. However, the 16.8% overall year on year rise in property prices is the largest annual increase since the height of the property boom and confirms that the real estate market is heading in the right direction in a steady manner. According to Alan McQuaid from Merrion Stockbrokers the monthly declines in house prices in the first two months of 2015 were probably weather related, with the lack of supply the key driver of prices. ‘Although the tighter lending restrictions imposed by the Central Bank and the end of the Capital Gain Tax property purchase incentive scheme may weigh negatively to some degree, it appears that house price growth may be stronger in 2015 than we previously envisaged,’ he explained. He believes that the improving economy should sustain the house price recovery in the short term even with credit restrictions. Continue reading
