St Neots Property Prices Have Risen by 417% Since 1995
What determines where we are on the seesaw of a seller’s market or a buyer’s market?
We often get asked ‘what’s going on in the St Neots property market just now?’ when we’re out and about as people try to decide whether it’s a good time to buy or sell a property.
The answer is that it really does depend on if you’re buying, selling, or both!
The St Neots property market is like a seesaw. For the last two years, it has been firmly in the realms of a 90% seller's/10% buyer's market.
However, unless you are a St Neots buy-to-let landlord, St Neots first-time buyer, or executors selling a deceased person's estate, most home movers are both i.e. they are both sellers and buyers.
What determines where we are on the seesaw of a seller’s market or a buyer’s market?
It comes down to simple supply and demand economics, the number of properties on the market versus the number of buyers in the market.
Like when someone sells goods or services, it's the same with property. So, when we have a low supply of properties on the market and high demand for properties to move into (like we have had for the last two years since the end of lockdown one), house prices go up.
St Neots house prices are 11.2% higher than a year ago.
The other side of the coin was seen in the Credit Crunch years of 2008/9. Many people wanted to sell their houses in St Neots, yet the banks weren’t lending, so people couldn't buy. This meant the supply of property on the market exceeded demand; hence St Neots house prices dropped by 16% to 19% in 18 months (depending on what type of property you were selling) as we had a 20% seller's/80% buyer's market.
Whilst demand and supply are the key driving force on the balance of the buyer/seller’s market seesaw, it is not the only influencer of the property market. The price band is also an essential determiner of house prices, albeit over the longer term.
The average St Neots house price has risen from £63,091 in 1995 to £326,520 in 2021, a growth of 417.5%.
Interesting, when you compare that against the national figure of 407.2%. We’re also come in at 143rd out of 331 local authorities in England & Wales for house price growth.
It’s called the property ladder for an excellent reason, and the health of the whole St Neots property market is very dependent on those bottom rungs of that ladder.
Looking at the data for our local authority and paying particular attention to the lower end of the price bracket as that is a good bellwether for the whole St Neots property market, some intriguing data comes to light. If you look at our figures for St Neots and the whole local authority, you can see the three parts (lowest 10%/lowest 25% and overall average) have performed differently.
1. Lower 10th Percentile of the St Neots housing market (the bottom 10% in terms of the value of properties sold – e.g. small apartments and ex-local authority properties in the less popular areas, which mainly attract buy-to-let landlords)
The average value of a St Neots property sold in 1995 in the lower 10th percentile (i.e. the bottom 10% of the St Neots property market) was £34,000, and in 2021, it was £175,000, a growth of 414.7% (compared to the national average of 428.4%).
2. Lower Quartile of the St Neots housing market (the bottom 25% of St Neots property in terms of their value, e.g. first-time buyer homes and mid-market buy-to-let property)
The average value of a St Neots property sold in 1995 in the lower quartile was £42,000, and in 2021, it was £223,000, a growth of 431% (compared to the national average of 417.7%).
Some of you might be asking yourself, what do all these different figures mean to St Neots homeowners, first-time buyers and landlords?
The overall average is roughly the same as the lower 10th percentile growth figures, yet the lower quartile is much higher. This means the middle to upper market in St Neots has not performed as well as the lower/middle end in terms of house price growth since 1995.
The thought I am trying to get across to every St Neots homeowner and buy-to-let landlord is that there isn’t just ‘one’ St Neots property market.
There are markets within markets - almost like a fly's eye. It is essential not to look at just the headlines but delve deeper when considering what is really happening and not to just look at the overall averages.
As we enter the height of the summer, the St Neots property market seesaw has started to change ever so slightly, changing from the 90% seller's/10% buyer's market we have had in the last two years to more of a 70% seller's/30% buyer's market.
If this means that now is a good time for you to move, then why not register with us so you can be the first one to hear about new properties coming onto the market HERE
Or
If you'd like to sell your property sooner rather than later then book a valuation with us HERE