Plymouth house prices could be about to boom, say experts
04-01-2015
By Plymouth Herald
HOMES in Plymouth are set to become less affordable as the city faces rising property prices, according to experts.
The warning comes as new figures show cities in the South West are among the UK’s top ten most unaffordable places to buy a home, new research shows.
The cost of a typical city home is at its most unaffordable level since 2009 as buyers face stretching their wages even further to keep up with rising property prices, a report has found.
On average the cost is now 6.1 times gross average local earnings, up from a multiple of 5.8 just a year ago, Lloyds Bank found.
The level remains below the peak of the housing boom in 2008, when the average property cost 7.2 times earnings, but the trend is upward.
Truro was rated the eight priciest with homes 8.61 times average local wages with Exeter not far behind in tenth place, with a multiple of 8.04.
Devon estate agent Richard Copus, spokesman for the National Association of Estate Agents in the South West, said Plymouth was also set to join the list as urban regeneration sent prices upwards.
“Homes in Plymouth have been going up over the last couple of years as it goes through regeneration,” he added.
“It has been down for so many years but is becoming much more popular and also less affordable.”
Lloyds made Oxford the nation’s least affordable city, with the average house price standing at £361,469, almost 11 times the local wage.
Winchester, Cambridge, Chichester and Brighton and Hove completed the top five least, followed by Bath and Greater London. In Winchester and Cambridge, homes cost around 10 times local earnings, while in Chichester and Brighton and Hove they cost more than nine times earnings.
Greater London comes not far behind, with a home there costing around 8.75 times average earnings in the capital.
With an average price of £158,645, Stirling remains the UK’s most affordable city, with a property there costing around 3.9 times gross average annual earnings, according to Lloyds’ Affordable Cities Review.
Andy Hulme, Lloyds Bank mortgages director, said: “House price rises in the past two years have resulted in a deterioration in home affordability in the majority of UK cities, and generally widening the north/south affordability divide as the market has been strongest in the south.
“The UK’s most successful cities economically have tended to see the strongest property price rises.
“Aberdeen, the country’s oil and gas capital, has recorded the biggest gains over the past decade whilst London has been the top performer during the economic recovery.”