The research from Savills indicated that the growing trend for living within a thriving city or town outside of London led to residential property values within these centres performing most positively in all regions, when compared to other towns, villages and rural locations.
‘Indications are that the fledgling growth recorded in the outer commuting zone of London is consolidating with positive stories coming from popular commuting locations including Winchester, Oxford, Cambridge and Bishop’s Stortford,’ said research analyst Sophie Chick.
‘These well established areas are now in high demand from families needing a realistic commute into London, but where schools and recreation are equally important. Average values for the quarter increased by 1.6% leaving them just 5.7% off their peak values,’ she added.
Within urban locations the terraced house showed the highest growth and values are now just 2.9% off peak. This is in stark contrast to the detached house, where values fell slightly during the quarter and remain more than 10% below their peak values.
Outside of the regional cities and towns it is only manor houses that showed a small fall in average values, down 0.6% for the quarter with values now -16.1% below their peak. Average values for farm houses, rectories and cottages all saw a small uplift. This supports anecdotal evidence of London buyers choosing to invest in a country retreat while maintaining a London base rather than moving altogether out of the capital.
Average country house values so far this year have remained unchanged in England, and Savills says that this partly reflects the poor weather and lack of new stock to encourage potential buyers into moving.
‘We see this picture changing once spring arrives and more houses are launched onto the market. Values are still just over 10% off their peak, unlike prime London values, which are now 18.6% above their peak,’ explained Chick.
In Scotland, values in the country the country house market over £2 million during the quarter fell by 3.9% and are now 44.6% below peak. ‘Our research shows that prime stock levels are 20% up on the same period of last year and this is having a suppressing affect on prime values,’ said Chick.
‘However, properties launched on to the market at realistic prices continue to sell. The upswing in prime market transactions during the final months of 2012 has continued into the first quarter of 2013. The number of prime transactions across Scotland during the first two months of 2013 are on a par with the level during 2012 over the same period,’ she added.
