Well its been a few months since Brexit and as we settle into the Autumn with Great British Bake Off, Strictly and the Football season… the newspapers are returning to their mixed messages of good news, bad news and indifferent news about the Brit’s favourite subject after the weather… the property market.
The thing is the UK does not have one housing market. Instead, it is a patchwork of mini property markets all performing in a different way. At one end of scale is Kensington and Chelsea, which has seen average prices drop in the last twelve months by 6.2% whilst in our East of England region, house prices are 14.3% higher. But what about Cambridge?
Property prices in Cambridge are 9% higher than a year ago and 0.3% higher than last month.
So what does this mean for Cambridge landlords and homeowners? Not that much unless you are buying or selling in reality. Most sellers are buyers anyway, so if the one you are buying has gone up, yours has gone up. Everything is relative and what I would say is, if you look hard enough, there are even in this market, there are still some bargains to be had in Cambridge.
However, the most important question you should be asking though is not only is what happening to property prices, but exactly which price band is selling? I like to keep an eye on the property market in Cambridge on a daily basis because it enables me to give the best advice and opinion on what (or not) to buy in Cambridge.
If you look at Cambridge and split the property market into four equalled sized price bands. Each price band would have around 25% of the property in Cambridge, from the lowest in value band (the bottom 25%) all the way through to the highest 25% band (in terms of value).
- Nil to £325k – 144 properties for sale and 190 sold (stc) i.e. 56% sold
- £325k to £450k – 176 properties for sale and 202 sold (stc) i.e. 53% sold
- £450k to £650k – 154 properties for sale and 145 sold (stc) i.e. 48% sold
- £650k+ – 136 properties for sale and 99 sold (stc) i.e. 42% sold
Fascinating don’t you think that it is the lower to middle Cambridge market that is doing the best?
The next nine months’ activity will be crucial in understanding which way the market will go this year after Brexit … but, Brexit or no Brexit, people will always need a roof over their head and that is why the property market has ridden the storms of oil crisis’ in the 1970’s, the 1980’s depression, Black Monday in the 1990’s, and latterly the credit crunch together with the various house price crashes of 1973, 1987 and 2008.
And why? Because of Britain’s chronic lack of housing will prop up house prices and prevent a post spike crash… there is always a silver lining when it comes to the property market!
