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Welsh house prices

Disturbing article yesterday on house price falls in Wales.

It suggests that Wales has done better than the UK average during the last few years in terms of the value of housing, with Welsh house prices increasing by 188 per cent since 1998, slightly higher than the UK average of 176 per cent. However, this trend is reversing just as quickly

According to the latest figures from the Land Registry for property transactions completed in April, the average home now costs £153,864, some 5.9 per cent down in a month.

Those areas which have had 10 per cent price decreases include Merthyr Tydfil and Pembrokeshire which means that any young person in those areas who has saved up a small deposit to buy their first home are already in negative equity.

Other counties which look set to follow this trend include Torfaen, Conwy, Swansea and Newport."

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am sure Plaid's £5k grant will really help this situation. NOT!
June 23, 2008 10:13 pm
Normal Mouth said…
Those areas which have had 10 per cent price decreases include Merthyr Tydfil and Pembrokeshire which means that any young person in those areas who has saved up a small deposit to buy their first home are already in negative equity.

On the other hand, housing is becoming more affordable for those who can secure a mortgage.
June 24, 2008 6:48 am
Anonymous said…
New house building starts are falling, as we might expect, which added to the mothballing by big house builder companies that I'm hearing about (they're putting on roofs on and making the buildings watertight, then leaving them. This is a really odd crisis and it seems likely it will exacerbate the house shortage for some years to come. Brickies are taking pay cuts, and brick factories are closing too, so where we are heading now would take a brighter person than me (I know that's not difficult to find!) to work out.
June 24, 2008 11:13 am
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
Normal - it will take a considerable amount of time for that to happen and even if house prices come down by 20 per cent, it will still be out of the reach of many. However, the real worry is that firtst time buyers, like the rest of us, don't know how far prices are to fall. Would you put 10 per cent deposit on a house now only to find that its price could drop by a further 10 per cent over the next twelve months?

Bern - this is the time to get social housing stock developed. We need the houses so why not put some public funding into building them
June 24, 2008 3:45 pm
Anonymous said…
I support you on that. But also consider buying from developers desperate to sell - the effect is the same and delivers a faster result. I've seen discounts offered in the press. Whether they would sell at a low enough price depends how desperate they become. For many people, for a number of different reasons, buying a house is not a possible option. Social housing can be a very sensible choice, and we have too many families (and others, singles need somewhere to live) living in hostels and other short term accomodation.
June 24, 2008 4:19 pm
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