Welcome to the Basingstoke Property Blog

It’s a boy! Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their new arrival, the fifth in line to the throne. While we await a name, in property terms which are the most valuable, or familiar of the bookmakers favourites? Over the last year properties sold on streets bearing all the names with the exception of Frederick exceed the UK average house price of £225,047. Properties sold on streets bearing Albert, Elizabeth and Mary attracting the highest price premiums. Victoria is the most popular girls street name, Albert for a boy, over 3300 and 1300 sales respectively taking place on streets bearing these names, compared to less than 40 for Alice and just 130 for Philip. And what of George and Charlotte? Properties sold on streets including George, sold on average for over twice the UK average at over £483,000, while Charlotte attracts a premium of over £70k compared to the UK average.

The National Housing Federation recently published their report “Home Truths 2017/18” which offers an interesting insight into the property market across the country. Although the data is based on figures from 2017, and is therefore 6 to 9 months in arrears, there were some interesting figures for the Basingstoke and Deane market. The report highlighted the following concerns for the Basingstoke housing market   ·          Between 2012 and 2016 there was a short fall of over 2,343 homes – the second highest in Hampshire after the New Forest. 
 ·          At over £326,000, the average home in the region now costs over 10 times the average salary. 
 ·          A family seeking to buy the average home in Basingstoke now requires an income of more than £74,000 
 to afford a mortgage, making home ownership unattainable for many. 
 ·  ...

Over half (55%) of owner occupiers across England own their homes outright. Meanwhile, house price growth means that homeowners have amassed significant amounts of equity in their homes. Many, having climbed the housing ladder, are now realising the potential of this huge wealth tied up in property by downsizing from their existing large properties. The Annual Retirement Confidence Index from McCarthy & Stone in 2017 revealed that 38% of over 65s would consider downsizing now, equating to around 4.5 million pensioners. We calculate that, if owners moved from their existing 4-bedroom detached home to a 2-bedroom flat, they could release, on average just under a quarter of a million pounds. The amount varies by region from £155,000 in Wales to £466,750 in the South East and £815,000 in London. While freeing up under occupied homes to help ease some of the housing stock issues in the market, downsizers will reduce their ongoing running costs and also be left with a large pot of...