Welcome to the Basingstoke Property Blog

As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to catch up on some of the headline numbers for the Basingstoke property market.   In the last month, Basingstoke property values rose by 0.18%, leaving them, year on year 12.2% higher, whilst interestingly, Basingstoke asking prices are down 2.0% month on month. All three statistics go to show the Basingstoke property market has recovered well after the summer lull, which was worsened by the uncertainty surrounding the EU vote back in June. Irrespective of all the issues, the average value of a Basingstoke home now stands at £342,600.   Generally, Basingstoke asking prices continue to hold up well, as asking prices are 4.7% higher year on year. At this time of year, asking prices tend to drop on the run up to Christmas and locally, they have dropped by 2.0% this month (November 2016), although this compares well with last year’s drop in Basingstoke asking prices, as we saw asking prices drop by 1.1% in No...

The semi-detached house with its bay windows and net curtains has long been ridiculed as an emblem of safe, lacklustre and desperately uncool suburban life; the homes of the likes of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping up Appearances and more latterly Alan Partridge – but they could have the last laugh - having enjoyed the highest price growths of any property type in Basingstoke, up by an average 313% increase in the last twenty years.   The semi can now laugh in the face of its posher detached counterpart, which saw a rise of only 251% in the same 20-year period. Looking at smaller properties, flats/apartments rose 287%, whilst terraced houses did slightly better at 308% (although they were starting from a lower base and demand from buy to let landlords has had a big part in driving the values on that type of house ( i.e. the price a buy to let landlord is prepared to pay is driven by the rent the landlord can achieve ). In 1996 the average value of a Basingstoke semi stood ...

Figures just released by the Bank of England, show that for the first half of 2016, £128.73bn was lent by UK banks to buy UK property - impressive when you consider only £106.7bn was lent in the first half of 2015. Even more interesting, was that most of the difference was in Q2, as £68.12bn was lent by UK banks in new mortgages for house purchase, which is the highest it has been for two years. Looking locally, in Basingstoke last quarter, £758.6m was loaned on RG22 properties alone! Even though the Bank won’t be releasing the Q3 figures until December 2016, HMRC have published their own preliminary data to suggest Q3 will be even better, with a massive growth of buy-to-let landlords to the housing market in that time frame. Fascinating, as it seems to fly in the face of the popular narrative – that the uncertainty surrounding Brexit would negatively impact buyer sentiment. And it’s not just buy-to-let landlords that seem to be flourishing. I am finding that first-time buyers a...