Homes Under The Hammer

Research by Zoopla has found that 86% of homes have stagnated in value. This is a positive for home improvement firms pushing the improve to move message.

The analysis shows just 4.2 million out of 30 million homes have grown in value every year of the past five years but the slow down has been magnified in the past two to three.

Mortgage rates are two to three times higher than five years ago, adding to the cost of buying a home, which explains why house price inflation is far from guaranteed.

Bucking the trend

However, certain regions and towns are proving more resilient than others for specific reasons.

The North leads on resilience as the North-West, Scotland and Yorkshire emerge with stable price increases year-on-year compared to southern counterparts.

Sinking prices

Consistent decline over the 5-year period is rare, with just 0.2% of UK homes suffering a fall in value. These are concentrated to specific areas such as Aberdeen (5.9%), which could be suffering as fewer oil workers are looking for homes.

Not seen in 25 years

Average UK house prices have increased in 25 of the last 30 years.  While many UK homeowners may assume their property’s value has been steadily increasing each year, the Zoopla analysis reveals that sustained, consistent house price growth may be a thing of the past.

Influences

Lower home values in the north mean more households can afford to buy and this supports continued price inflation despite the changing economic conditions and higher borrowing costs.

Property in the North-West leads the UK in consistent house price growth, with 30% of homes consistently increasing in value over each of the past five years. This trend is also evident in other, more affordable areas such as Yorkshire and the Humber, where 22% of homes have continued to rise in value each year.

One in twenty in the south

However, these areas lie in stark contrast to southern England where the impact of higher borrowing costs has had a greater impact on house prices, where fewer than one in 20 homes have registered consistent yearly increases in home values.

There are localised hotspots in and around London. Dagenham's resilience, for example, tracks its position as one of London's last affordable family-home markets with home values around 25% below the London average (£400,000 versus £525,000). Affordability combined with transport improvements such as the Elizabeth Line and Overground line extension to Barking Riverside explain the above average performance versus London overall.

Midlands

Bicester's strong performance with 28% of homes registering consistent price gains also reflects transport improvements with East West Rail's Oxford-Cambridge link (Bicester-Bletchley section opened December 2024) reinforcing Bicester's role as a growth-corridor and an area with growth in new housing supply.

Scotland

North of the border, Bonnybridge sees 60.8% of homes with consistent growth, representing the UK's highest proportion with average home values of £220,000. Bonnybridge provides good access to Falkirk, Stirling and Glasgow which are all within a 15 to 40-minute commute.

Witham

In contrast, while Witham is the strongest performer in the East of England, only 13.3% of homes have risen in value each year despite a 45-minute London Liverpool Street commute. Average home values are already at £320,000. This underlines the pattern: housing affordability, not just transport access, is what helps sustain markets that have registered consistent house price growth.

And of course, if lots of homeowners are improving the kerb-appeal of their properties, streets in any area can see a big surge in values against streets where buy-to-let landlords allow the outside of their properties fail to reflect improvements they have made to interiors.

Picture: Few properties are growing in year-on-year value unless they are being improved.

www.zoopla.co.uk

Picture is with thanks to Kömmerling, which asks the question in this article, are we the right window door, and building products supplier for you?