Bath property market report – March 2023
According to the Telegraph’s 1st March article citing a survey by Propcast, Bath is the only English city where property buyer demand has risen in the past six months (up 11% apparently). Alternative news was provided at the same time by the Nationwide in their house price index which concluded that the property markets slowdown continues as house prices fell for the fifth month in a row and prices are 3.2% lower than their August peak. What are we to believe? Many in the media are taking the opportunity to liberally use phrases like “house price crash” but are they basing their opinions just on very recent history?
Over the pandemic, the housing market boomed – fed primarily by the work from home revolution as well as a move out of big cities and also renewed interest in homes with outside space – all completely understandable given the circumstances. Then came the Sept 2022 “mini-budget” which spiked mortgage rates upwards and everyone held their breath to see what happened over the winter. Rising interest rates and cost of living increases have also had to be factored in by all of us.
However, one thing we can be certain of is that the last three years have not been a normal housing market. Looking at now vs then is bound to create a distorted picture both locally and nationally as a very peculiar set of circumstances created an unusual scenario. Of course current conditions are “worse” than they were last year but last year broke all records in the history of time! Surely some price corrections are expected after such an energised and volatile period?
Based on the above, I thought for this market report we should look back to the most recent “normal” market (which is in itself a bit of a crazy statement as we are talking about Bath!) and compare figures from March 2019 to current data. I have added our standard collection of stats below so you can judge for yourself but what headlines can we suggest?
- Supply is down. Way down. Yes, we have more properties available in the city than the heights of the 2022 boom (March 2023 – 343 available properties) but we are experiencing stock levels well below any other year since 2017. Less properties are available and less are coming to market than usual.
- Properties are selling as fast or faster now than 2019 – the average time on market score differentials are marked. Barring some unusual data in the sub 200k market, the mean/median selling times are identical to 2019 too.
- Given house price increases in the meantime, the proportion of “affordable” properties has decreased – 5% less available homes to buy under 500k than in 2019. This might not sound like much but, with overall limited availability, 5% is a lot of homes.
- Flats are recovering sales wise from pandemic inspired oversupply but are still not selling at similar speeds to other property types
What do you think? Are we simply back to a more normal market after three years of instability? Is Bath really a stand out market in the UK because we have maintained / increased demand and a long term supply issue? Have a look at the figures below (full spreadsheet available here 2017-23 Bath prop data as well) and do contact us if you want more information.
Figures below collected on 04/03/23 and compared against our archive data from March 2019 (in red)
Total property on market in Bath
Rightmove – 503 (745)
Zoopla – 437 (578)
OnTheMarket – 181 (333)
Home.co.uk – 493 (750)
New Instructions in last 14 days
Rightmove – 131 (161)
Zoopla – 73 (80)
OnTheMarket – search option not available
Home.co.uk – 64 (81)
Average Time on Market
Less than 1 month – 24.7% (19.2%)
Less than 2 months – 39.3% (36%)
More than 1 year – 7.9% (6.2%)
Selling Time in Bath (last 90 days)
Mean – 122 days (148 days)
Median – 72 days (96 days)
Properties for Sale in Bath by Price
Under 200k – 5.6% (6.9%)
200k to 300k – 17.4% (17.6%)
300k to 500k – 35.4% (38.6%)
500k+ – 41.3% (36.8%)
Median Selling Times in Bath by property type
Flats – 94 days
Terraced – 66 days
Semi-detached – 68 days
Detached – 48 days
Property on market by Type
Flats – 45.6% (38.5%)
Terraced – 20% (24.5%)
Semi-detached – 22.6% (19.4%)
Detached – 11.8% (15.3%)
For more information on our services or latest news from our property consultancy, visit our main website homepage or follow us on Facebook
SOLD THIS WEEK
