Looking back 10 years at the Mid Sussex Property Market.

Doesn’t time fly? I was only saying to my better half the other day, whilst reminiscing over old photos, how time does literally fly by. It doesn’t seem like two minutes since we were taking the Christmas Decorations off the tree and now the shops are full of Christmas Trees again so soon! The years add up and fly by and sometimes, it’s just good to take stock of what has happened and where we have got to in life.

In this article, I want you to go back ten years. Why ten years?  Well, it’s quite an important birthday for myself and my team in Mid Sussex and I will tell you about that a little later. So with that in mind, as my regular readers will know, my real passion is everything to do with the Mid Sussex property market, so let’s take a step back ten years and see what has happened to the Mid Sussex property market.

3,652 days or ten years is a long time in any one’s books, especially in the property market. So in ten years, this is what has happened in Mid Sussex;

• The population of Mid Sussex has increased by 12,482, meaning there are 139,860 people living in Mid Sussex area.
•  The value of an average detached house in Mid Sussex has risen from £363,467 to £604,603, a rise of 66.4%
• Roll the clock back 10 years, and 8,473 people lived in 3,524 rental properties in Mid Sussex. Now, 16,604 people live 6,719 rental properties
• The value of an average semi-detached house in Mid Sussex has risen from £238,344 to £389,119,  a 63.3% increase
• Even with the increase in renting, the number of people who own their own home in the Mid Sussex area has hardly changed. Go back ten years and 41,314 properties were owner occupied. Ten years later and that figure has hardly changed at 42,658
• The value of an average terraced / town house in Mid Sussex has risen from £192,563 to £311,245 an increase of 61.6%
• 29,228 properties have sold and changed hands in Mid Sussex over the last ten years
• The value of an average apartment / flat in Mid Sussex has risen from £150,498 to £210,105 a rise of 39.7%
• Under the Right To Buy Scheme, exactly 813 Mid Sussex Council/ Housing Association tenants bought their own Council House
• 5,440 new properties have been built in Mid Sussex
• Have you noticed less for sale boards? Less people are moving In Mid Sussex.  Ten years ago, 3,132 properties sold in Mid Sussex area in one year. In the last twelve months only 2,878 properties have sold, meaning there has been a drop 8.2% in the number of properties sold.

And finally, 10 years ago our Martin and Co in Burgess Hill opened its doors. Originally opened by Sandra and Bob Reeves in 2006, when they decided to retire a few years ago, myself and my business partner David Nicholson thought we wanted to carry on their great work and legacy by taking the baton over.

David helps in the background, as he was already a well-established letting and estate agent with his own Martin and Co office in Crawley. I worked as a Senior Manager in the casino industry, but being a landlord myself, I always had a passion for property. That means we care, we are friendly, we know what we are doing and we are always professional. We currently look after over £80 million pounds of client property across Mid Sussex, so we must be doing something right, something we are all very proud to do and be a part of.

So, I hope you can join me in celebrating with my superb colleagues Jason, Maxine, Caroline, Leah and all the Martin and Co Burgess Hill family in our 10^th Birthday celebrations, because as most of you reading this will know, running your own business is one of the hardest, yet fulfilling things you will ever do, and to still be successful after 10 years is a good result. Here’s to the next 10 years!!!