Burgess Hill Property Market – Which Houses are Actually Selling?

Beast from the East, Russia, Facebook, Brexit, Trump, House prices up, House prices down; the Press is full of column inches on Brit’s favourite subjects of politics, scandal, weather and not forgetting (and I appreciate the irony of this!) the property market. As an agent belonging a national group of letting and estate agents, talking to my fellow property professionals from around the UK, the one thing that is immediately apparent is the UK does not have one property market. It is a patchwork of lots of small property markets all performing in different ways.  And that made me think; is there just one Burgess Hill Property Market or many?

I like to keep an eye on the property market in Burgess Hill and Mid Sussex as a whole on a daily basis because it enables me to give the best advice and opinion on what (or not) to buy, be that a buy-to-let property for a landlord or an owner occupier house for a home owner.  So, I thought, how could I scientifically split the Burgess Hill housing market into segments, so I could see which part of the market was performing the best and the worst.

I decided the best way was to split the Burgess Hill property market into four equal size price bands (into terms of households for sale). Each price band would have around 25% of the property in Burgess Hill, from the lowest in value (the Lowest Quartile or 25%) all the way through to the highest 25% in terms of value, the Upper Quartile.  Looking at the market, I have calculated that these are the price bands in Burgess Hill are as follows:

·         Lowest Quartile (lowest 25% in terms of value) Up to £280,000

·         Lower/Middle Quartile (25% to 50% Quartile in terms of value) £280,000 to £350,000

·         Middle/Upper Quartile (50% to 75% Quartile in terms of value) £350,000 to £425,000

·         Upper Quartile (highest 25% in terms of value) £425,000 Upwards.

So, having split the Burgess Hill Property Market approximately into four equal sizes, the results in terms what price band has sold (subject to contract or STC) the most is quite enlightening -

The best performing price range in Burgess Hill is the middle market. As I would expect, the upper quartile (the top 25%) is finding things tough. Interestingly for Burgess Hill landlords, the lower market is also selling well, meaning there are plenty of Burgess Hill landlords buying properties to add to their buy to let portfolios. Even though the number of first time buyers did increase in 2017, it was from a low base and the vast majority of 20 something’s cannot buy, so need a roof over their head (hence the need to rent somewhere).

It is a fact that British (and Burgess Hill’s) housing markets have ridden the storms of Oil crisis in the 1970’s, the 1980’s depression, Black Monday in the 1990’s, and latterly the Credit Crunch together with the various house price crashes of 1973, 1987 and 2008. No matter what happens to us Brexit or anything else, unless the Government starts to build hundreds of thousands extra houses each year, demand will always outstrip supply so maybe a time for landlord investors to bag a bargain?

Want to know where those buy to let bargains are?  Follow my Mid Sussex Property Blog or drop me an email because irrespective of which agent you use, myself or any of the other excellent agents in Mid Sussex, many local landlords ask me my thoughts, opinion and advice on what (and not) to buy locally.

Burgess Hill Property Market – Asking Prices Down 9% in the Last 12 Months.

The average asking price of property in Burgess Hill dropped by 9% or £41,080 compared to a year ago, taking the current average asking price to £415,738 compared with £456,818 this time last year.

The overall drop in asking prices is being put down to sellers being more realistic with their pricing and looking to benefit from the impending mortgage interest rate rises later in 2018. This is great news for first, second and third time buyers in Burgess Hill starting their property hunting in the usually active spring market this year facing the opportunity of paying less for the property of their dreams. Even better news is that whilst first time buyers also have to pay less for their property, they also have the bonus of the Chancellor stopping Stamp Duty being paid by first time buyers!

Looking at the different sectors of the Burgess Hill property market, splitting it down into property types, one can see what is happening to each sector of the market with regard to their average asking prices now compared to a year ago. Firstly, looking at the pound note amounts;

Interestingly, when one looks at the percentages, the most movement in average asking price pressure is in the semi-detached property type sector.

Now, I must stress this overall drop in the asking prices of Burgess Hill property doesn’t necessarily mean the value of Burgess Hill property is going down by the same amount.

Only time will tell if the current levels of Burgess Hill asking prices is a correction of optimistic house sellers after a couple of months of enthusiastic asking price rises in the lead up to Christmas, or is it an initial sign that property values are slipping. To judge what is really happening to the Burgess Hill property market, I believe these asking prices must be viewed in conjunction with both the values achieved and the length of time it takes to sell the property.

Also, these figures are averages, so it might also mean less expensive types of Burgess Hill detached or apartments are on the market now, this dragging the average down, compared to a year ago.

One thought I would like to share with the Burgess Hill homeowners and landlords wanting to sell their property, is the fact they need to be aware of the competition of other people selling their homes. One factor that could be contributing to a subdued demand for local property is the progressively strained buyer mortgage affordability (i.e. banks telling people they can only afford so much on a mortgage), meaning more and more buyers are hitting their maximum on the amount they are able to borrow on a mortgage sooner than they thought.

So, what does this all mean, especially for buy to let landlords in Burgess Hill? During these months of flux, there could be some property bargains to be had. Lower asking prices mean you are buying in better yields and potential capital growth at the same time. Many Burgess Hill landlords pick the phone up or email me with Rightmove links, asking my opinion on the BTL potential of property. I don’t charge for that service, so if you don’t want to miss out on such opinion, follow what they do and drop me a line.