Average home in Chiswick now costs over £440,000

Confirmation that local property has undergone something of a mini-boom was confirmed with the release of the latest data from the Land Registry.

Property in Chiswick is continuing to rise in price above both national and London wide trends with the average home selling price up 16.6% to £441,220 compared to the same period last year. All sectors saw rises but the top end seems to be a significant factor (excluding semi-detatched and detatched the rise was just 10%).

Stephen Rodgers of Local Independent Financial Advisers Berkeley Consultants confirmed that mortgage activity in the higher priced end of the market had increased since last year. "Although first time buyers are very slowly gaining confidence, we are finding that experienced borrowers are undeterred about market negativity."

The rises in Chiswick were well ahead of the national average property price which was up by 5.4 % to £184,924 over the same period whilst the average price in London rose by 4.6% to £293,349.

It wasn't all good news for estate agents with volumes down 45.6% compared with the same quarter last year. Only 177 properties were sold during the quarter. Sales in London as a whole fell by 28.4% over the period a fall which was mirrored nationally with a decrease of 27.7%

Christine Fox, sales director at Faron Sutaria said that contrary to the overall market they had seen a marked increase in the number of instructions they were receiving. She commented, "As far as prices going up - I would be very cautious about that - there are no indications of that on the 'front-line' - so to speak. Buyers are still being cautious about the prices they are paying, although a lowering of the interest rate might stimulate a bit of movement and add to the overall confidence in the market."

Over three years property prices in W4 are up by 22.0% with terraced housing leading the way rising by 31.1% . Over five years prices are up by over 40% across the board.

Andrew Nunn of Andrew Nunn Associates is sceptical as to whether the headline number on prices is truly representative of the change in prices. He said, "fewer transactions are taking place but those that are happening tend to be 'best in class' properties...so the values attached to each property type, on average, will be higher. That does not mean prices for that property type have increased year on year it just means better quality homes are selling. Also because volume transactions are so low this distorts the "growth"
figure even more."

Colette Brown of local estate agent Propertygarden.com said of the market currently, "What we are finding is that vendors who had properties on with other agents from last year in the higher brackets ( + £750,000) are actually now accepting offers they would have otherwise rejected six months ago. The time for realistic valuations has come and we are selling those properties which are priced well!"

The City based investment analyst who compiled the figures exclusively for ChiswickW4.com said that although the numbers needed to be treated with some caution they present a fair overall picture of the market. He said, "There are some small distortions to the numbers which mean that rises might be slightly exaggerated. For instance historically the Land Registry didn't publish data for property over £1 million but they do know. Also the fall in flat sales is dramatic so this tends to inflate the overall average. However even taking out these factors it is fair to call this latest period an all time high for the market."

On the prospects for the market he said that family homes continued to look the most attractive despite the rise in prices. "The amount of net new supply is almost zero whereas there is a substantial amount of new flats coming onto the market in areas like Kew and Brentford. Over the last three years flat prices have been pretty stagnant but terraced houses have risen strongly and that relative trend is likely to continue unless the supply of flats slows."

Morton House on Chiswick Mall was sold during the quarter becoming the third most expensive house to change hands in Chiswick at £2,750,000.

Property Price Data

1 - Bedford Park and the north side of the High Road

2 - The south side of the eastern end of the High Rd down to the river at Corney Reach

3 - The Grove Park area and over to Strand on the Green

4 - The west of Chiswick between the A4 and Chiswick High Rd - (a high concentration of flats)

5 - The north west of Chiswick - Acton Green mainly

Property Prices in Chiswick Apr-June 2005

Property Prices in Chiswick Jan-Mar 2005

Source: Land Registry

Copyright notice: All figures in this article are based on data released by the Land Registry. The numbers are derived from analysis performed by ChiswickW4.com. Any use of these numbers should jointly attribute the Land Registry and ChiswickW4.com. Note these figures may differ slightly from numbers previously published on this site as the Land Registry has revised its historic data.

November 10, 2004