Bath property market update – October 2020
Its now nearly six months since we were allowed to resume work after lockdown. Initial May headlines suggesting price crashes have so far appeared to be way off the mark with buyers quick to restart their searching. We’ve seen a huge increase in big city dwellers looking for more quality of life in smaller towns and of course Bath has always been a favourite choice for London escapees.
The Stamp Duty holiday has further fuelled demand (for more info on this and important timings to bear in mind, have a look at our blog article here) and encouraged some sellers to take the plunge to upgrade. House prices have hit an “all time high” according to Nationwide and Halifax figures. However, many analysts are again predicting longer term uncertainty with the Halifax MD Russell Galley quoted as saying “As government support measures come to an end, the resulting impact on the macroeconomic environment, and in turn the housing market, will start to become more apparent,”.
There may be a new Tory initiative on the horizon to help first time buyers get on the ladder. Boris Johnson promised a scheme at the Conservative conference on Tuesday to allow first-time buyers to get a mortgage with just a 5% deposit, in an effort to “turn generation rent into generation buy”. As many lenders have pulled 5% and even 10% deposit deals since lockdown, this could be welcome news to young buyers. However, the announcement was rather short on actual detail so we will have to wait and see how the government plans to implement the scheme.
Focussing on more local detail, how has the market in Bath performed over the last month? Below you’ll find our usual data summary with a few extra headlines at the end. We have also included figures from October last year for comparison purposes. As always, we’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions but please do contact us if you need further details or any advice;
Total property on market in Bath
Rightmove – 959 (888 in Oct 2019)
Zoopla – 768 (697 in Oct 2019)
OnTheMarket – 597 (590 in Oct 2019)
Home.co.uk – 988 (872 in Oct 2019)
New Instructions in last 14 days
Rightmove – 244 (156 in Oct 2019)
Zoopla – 148 (126 in Oct 2019)
OnTheMarket – search option not available
Home.co.uk – 134 (73 in Oct 2019)
Average Time on Market
Less than 1 month – 27% (18.8% in Oct 2019)
Less than 2 months – 45% (34.2% in Oct 2019)
More than 1 year – 11.9% (9.2% in Oct 2019)
Selling Time in Bath (last 90 days)
Mean – 117 days (124 days in Oct 2019)
Median – 44 days (57 days in Oct 2019)
Properties for Sale in Bath by Price
Under 200k – 6.3% (5.9% in Oct 2019)
200k to 300k – 21.3% (18.4% in Oct 2019)
300k to 500k – 35.5% (37% in Oct 2019)
500k+ – 24.1% (38.5% in Oct 2019)
Mean Selling Times in Bath by price bracket
100 to 200k – 208 days
200 to 300k – 109 days
300 to 400k – 104 days
400 to 500k – 103 days
500k to 1million – 126 days
1million+ – 123 days
Property on market by Type
Flats – 46.7% (36.8% in Oct 2019)
Terraced – 23.2% (24% in Oct 2019)
Semi-detached – 17.3% (21.1% in Oct 2019)
Detached – 12.2% (18.2% in Oct 2019)
Average Time on Market by Type
Flats – 162 days
Terraced – 131 days
Semi-detached – 123 days
Detached – 148 days
Local market headlines
13% more properties on market this October vs Oct 2019. However, there are 42% more apartments currently available this year than last year.
Selling prices are up 13% year on year (latest HMLR data from June 2020 vs June 2019). However, selling prices for flats are currently 5% down.
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