Annual house prices fall in Bexley borough
New house price figures based on Land Registry data show Bexley borough’s average house price fell by 1.7 per cent over the past year knocking £6,000 off the average house.
The borough is 32nd out of 33 London authorities when it comes to prices. For some time Bexley’s monthly figure remained positive despite falls in other boroughs but has now fallen below zero in recent months.
Despite the annual fall, monthly figures were 0.2 % up. Greenwich borough was down 0.5 % on the month but up 3.4 per cent annually.
Help to Buy
Both monthly and annual figures fluctuate quite widely depending on new-builds sold. Despite many now struggling to sell, those that do are often sold far in excess of local averages and inflated by Help to Buy. Many new buyers are walking into negative equity and will possibly struggle when it comes to sell.
Research earlier this year showed that across the UK first time buyers were now paying a £63,000 Help to Buy premium.
Housebuilders and developers have done extremely well out of the scheme with a vast increase in profit levels across volume housebuilders. Persimmon, for example, now make £66,265 profit on average from each home sold across the UK – which will be higher in London. Margins are vast. The average Persimmon house across the UK sold for £215,000 and made a profit of £66,265 for the company.
Those elevated prices can have an impact in some boroughs when homes are sold – though long term the impact may well be negative when buyers then sell.
Click here to read the November 2019 report.
