Cast your mind back to 2017. Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, Salvator Mundi, by Leonardo da Vinci, sold at auction for a record-breaking $450m and, after triggering Article 50, we thought Brexit would dominate the headlines for years to come.
In 2021 – with Brexit and Trump’s presidency behind us and in the midst of a global pandemic – house prices have hit new highs in many parts of Great Britain. Yet not all areas and types of home have seen growth. In some places, property prices are lower than they were four years ago. Due to the heightened demand for more space that has been a key theme since the coronavirus pandemic began, flats, in particular, have suffered.
Overall, there are 9 local authorities where the average price of a home is less than it was in 2017. Of these, 6 are London boroughs, which have failed to recover from their previous peaks after the market in the capital started to cool from 2015. In the City of London, an average home costs 14%, or £120,084, less than in 2017, while in the City of Westminster, it is 12%, or £124,607 less. In the City of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Reading, homes are also currently worth less on average than they were four years ago.
But when we looked specifically at flats, we found 56 local authorities where it’s cheaper to buy a flat today than it was in 2017. Aberdeen tops the table with the biggest price falls – a flat there currently costs an average of 17%, or £20,883, less than in 2017.
However, most of the areas where flats have suffered the steepest declines are in the South of England, notably the South East and East. It is these places – particularly the locations bordering the capital – where buyers value space the most and many of them have fled London so they can afford to buy a house rather than a flat. Indeed, while apartment values have lagged behind, the prices of houses in locations such as Windsor and Maidenhead and St Albans have soared this year.
Looking forward to 2022, the Brexit fallout will continue to rumble on, Trump may well hit the headlines again as he eyes a comeback, and it is likely that the gap between house and flat prices will begin to close. Barring any significant shocks from the Omicron variant or from interest-rate rises, first-time buyer numbers are set to increase next year and many of these purchasers will plump for a flat, given that the value of many houses has increased over the last 18 months to the point where they sit out of reach for many first-time buyers.
