According to the Land Registry's latest House
Price Index for Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells
have increased by 5.25% over the past year, which is proportionally 36% more
than the Royal Tunbridge Wells average rise of 3.86%. The last time
flats/apartments in Royal Tunbridge Wells out performed all the other types of
property, by such a gulf, was back in the summer of 2003. For comparison, the other
property types performed as follows ..
- · Detached homes rose by 2.85%
- · Semi-detached homes rose by 3.38%
- · Terraced/Town-Houses rose by 3.68%
This moderately increasing rate of property
value growth is opportune – but no one should confuse it with a strong and
vigorous healthy Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells on a
number of occasions in my Royal Tunbridge Wells Property Blog and whilst it
isn’t as bad as it was 12 months ago – choice is quite limited for buyers.
The average property value in Royal Tunbridge
Wells
now stands at £485,300.
When split down into property types ..
- · Royal Tunbridge Wells Apartments at £281,200
- · Royal Tunbridge Wells Detached at £845,500
- · Royal Tunbridge Wells Semi-Detached at £446,400
- · Royal Tunbridge Wells Terraced/Town-House at £369,900
So why have Royal Tunbridge Wells apartments
performed so well, and is it just a Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells
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. HMS Royal Tunbridge Wells
Property Market…. “Nice and steady as she goes”, says the Captain
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