THE CHEAPEST: BURNLEY
Burnley has the lowest average house price in the UK, at £78,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. It recently hit the headlines when a study from estate agents Countrywide identified it as the “flipping capital” of Britain, with almost one in 10 homes in the Lancashire town being sold multiple times in just one year.
Colin Haslam, a senior branch manager for Countrywide, says there is a fair amount of that going on, with investors taking advantage of relatively low prices to buy houses, make some improvements and sell them on.
But there are plenty of other factors pushing up prices and keeping the market buoyant. “We also see lots of investors from the south of England, and local investors who are buying to rent out,” says Haslam.
First-time buyers are also drawn to Burnley by its relatively low prices and a recently reopened train link to Manchester Victoria.
“I could sell modern semis all day long, there is so much demand,” says Haslam. “They go from £110,000 up to £160,000. For that you would expect mortgage repayments of around £550 a month, but to rent you are looking at £700 a month for the same property.”
Haslam expects the market in and around Burnley to remain pretty much stable. “We saw a slowdown after the election,” he says, “but it is beginning to pick up again now.”
He also thinks that a lack of supply will mean property prices keep rising.
“Out of five houses I sold last week, three went in excess of the asking price because there was more than one buyer interested.”
THE MOST EXPENSIVE: KENSINGTON
On the official measure, house prices are still rising year-on-year in Kensington, the west London enclave that is the most expensive borough in the country at an average of £1.5m per property. But agents around London say the market has been weighed down by higher stamp duty rates, changes in tax on buy-to-let properties, and Brexit.
Kit Allen, a director in the Kensington branch of Savills estate agency, echoes that analysis: “Volume has certainly dropped compared with 2014 – and the time for a sale to be achieved now stretches up to 12 months, and in some cases longer, and this inevitably leads to weaker pricing.”
Allen says the Brexit vote has hit appetites for homes in Kensington, an area long popular with people working in banking and finance. “Effectively, what Brexit has done is it is has thrown a large number of them on to hold, because they simply don’t know where their job is going to be,” he says.
When last summer’s referendum sent the pound tumbling against other currencies, some analysts predicted a house price bubble in London, as foreign investors took advantage of the exchange rate to snap up properties. A year on, Allen has not seen much evidence of that: “It’s not just a question of currency gains on exchange rates - it’s about confidence in the UK and its future.”
Looking ahead, he expects the Brexit process to continue to weigh on the housing market: “I think it’s going to be very lumpy over the next 18 months during these negotiations.”
