Local Homeowners

Forced to accept lower sale prices in Portsmouth

The most recently released statistics show that property owners in the historically popular cities of Cambridge, Oxford and London are being forced to accept lower prices when selling their homes, however the news isn’t much better for residents in Portsmouth.

The London Effect

Across the south of the country, the so called “London effect” has led to a slow down of inflation when it comes to house prices over the last year, after a number of years of growth. Despite the fact that London property prices increased by almost 9% over the last 5 years, with the average property now costing a shocking £488,000, over the past 12 months there has been growth of only 0.8%.

Now, the latest statistics have shown that Portsmouth is ranking fifth for UK cities which have had the biggest gap between sale and asking prices over the past half decade. Currently the average house price in the Portsmouth area comes in at around £235,000 – a figure which represents an increase of just 6.7% over the past 5 years.

It’s clear that affordability pressures are seriously impacting on would-be purchasers in cities right across the south of England, causing homeowners to have to accept ever-bigger discounts over the last year to achieve a sale.

Overall fall in growth

Portsmouth isn’t the only city outside of the Home Counties to be experiencing an ever-widening gap between sale and asking prices. Southampton and Bristol are also struggling – a clear sign of problems in the housing cycle.

Experts in the housing industry have pointed to these statistics as evidence that the pace of growth in cities has lost its momentum overall due to the almost entirely static house prices across the capital and slow rates of growth right across the south of England. It’s believed that weak consumer confidence paired with the modest increases in mortgage rates have also had an impact on demand, with mortgage approvals having sunk lower over the last quarter.

Good news for The North

For cities in Scotland and the north of the country, however, the news is much brighter. In fact, the statistics show that house prices have grown more than the average during the last tax year, with Manchester having seen the greatest level of growth, with local house prices increasing by 7.7% to an average of £161,700.

In the Midlands, Leicester too is performing well, with local house prices increasing by 7.4% up to an average of £171,000. Homes in both Leicester and Manchester were being sold at a smaller discount from asking prices than during the financial year from 2015-16, implying that things are on their way up.

Experts believe that this improved performance is due to the fact that properties in these midlands and northern cities are considerably more affordable, so those who aspire to be homeowners have more buying power.

Overall, the news isn’t great for Portsmouth homeowners, who look set to face another year of house price misery.