Agents say local market remains robust despite slight some recent cooling
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The average home in Chiswick now costs over one million pounds according to the latest official figures. During the third quarter of the year values increased by 19.8% to rise to yet another record high.
There were 202 transactions during the period at an average of £1,000,526. The level was boosted by the sale of a number of larger properties in the Bedford Park area including a house on The Orchard which went for £6,649,410. The average price of a terraced home is now £1.1 million with flats at over £500,000.
Prices in the W4 post code area have risen by 145.2% over the last decade.
However, one local agent, Christian Harper of HarperFinn added a note of caution and said; "I hear 'prices always go up in Chiswick, it's Chiswick darling', almost on a daily basis which I feel is becoming harder and harder to justify. Prices in W4 have cooled as demand has slightly dwindled, that's a fact. Fortunately they haven’t dropped to anything less than they were at the start of Q2 2014."
"In my opinion Chiswick is fortunate to be one of the most desirable residential locations in London and this will protect us from some of the exposure that weaker areas will suffer over the next few months".
However he said that controversies such as Mansion taxes, banking tax reform and 'In or Our' referendums would do nothing to encourage stability and cautioned: "In my opinion if we are not careful we will be reporting some darker figures in 2015."
Christopher Bramwell, head of Savills West London commented "In the heart of Chiswick it can be a struggle to find property priced below £1m, but there are some wonderful locations off the Strand, on the Green and within the Gunnersbury area that might still offer that opportunity.”
London property prices generally are up by 18.4% to £460,521 in the year to end September according to the Land Registry although they are slightly down from the level seen at the end of August.
The average house price in England and Wales is now £177,299 compared with the peak of £181,324 in November 2007. This is a rise of 7.2% compared with the same month last year.
The most up-to-date figures available show that during July 2014 the number of completed house sales in England & Wales increased by 7 per cent to 79,214 compared with 73,749 in July 2013. The number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1 million in July 2014 increased by 19 per cent to 1,439 from 1,207 in July 2013.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is striking a cautious note, pointing out that demand for property in London has been down for six months in a row. Prices are also falling in more recent months according to the RICS survey which covers sales up to the end of October.
London is experiencing a fall in buyer demand with 62% more chartered surveyors reporting a fall over the last month. Significantly, a little more stock is now coming onto the market with 15% more chartered surveyors seeing a rise in new instructions up from 3% more last month. The RICS say that this points to the market in London moving towards a more sustainable position and they remain modestly positive on a twelve month view.
In London, tenant demand was broadly flat over the last quarter. Despite this, rents are still expected to continue to move higher albeit by a little less than 2 per cent over the next twelve months.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS Chief Economist, said, 'The flatter trend in the market is partly a reflection of potential buyers becoming a little more cautious about making a purchase as more stringent lending criteria has made it harder to access mortgage finance. An increasing awareness of the approaching general election also appears to be contributing to the softer market if the responses to the latest survey are anything to go by. However, with new instructions still flat at a headline level as has been the case for most of the last year it seems implausible that the dip in demand will result in very much of a decline in house prices.'
| Chiswick Property Prices - (June - September 2014) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | Detached | Sales | Semi-detached | Sales | Terraced | Sales | Flat/ mais |
Sales | Overall Ave | Overall Sales |
| W4 1 | 4587353 | 4 | 2067400 | 5 | 1492545 | 11 | 522707 | 14 | 1541833 | 34 |
| W4 2 | - | - | 2386667 | 3 | 993411 | 23 | 614420 | 16 | 948552 | 42 |
| W4 3 | 1617333 | 3 | 1350625 | 8 | 1014864 | 11 | 450093 | 27 | 795368 | 49 |
| W4 4 | 3692500 | 2 | 1938333 | 6 | 1700000 | 4 | 619392 | 25 | 1116211 | 37 |
| W4 5 | - | - | 750000 | 1 | 1107172 | 16 | 482921 | 23 | 739299 | 40 |
| Total | 3398490 | 9 | 1768783 | 23 | 1152995 | 65 | 532316 | 105 | 1000526 | 202 |
| Change in Quarter | 102.4% | 125.0% | 10.3% | -11.5% | 10.2% | 14.0% | 1.7% | 32.9% | 11.2% | 21.7% |
| Change in year | 103.5% | -10.0% | 17.5% | -30.3% | 16.7% | -31.6% | 28.3% | -1.9% | 19.8% | -17.6% |
| Change in three years | 239.6% | 28.6% | 25.6% | -43.9% | 45.5% | -21.7% | 45.9% | 20.7% | 34.4% | -7.3% |
| Change in five years | 86.7% | 125.0% | 64.7% | -17.9% | 71.7% | 18.2% | 53.9% | 22.1% | 66.3% | 16.8% |
| Change in ten years | - | - | 135.8% | -52.1% | 144.9% | -35.0% | 83.9% | -50.2% | 145.2% | -44.7% |
Roughly speaking the post code sector areas are as follows:
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
November 17, 2014