Last month an article in The Times was headed “House prices jump by £8,000 in a month, the fastest for 20 years”. It went on to say, “According to the property portal Rightmove the average price of a house coming to market is £348,804, about 9.5 per cent higher than a year ago. In the two years since the pandemic started, asking prices have risen by nearly £40,000, compared with £9,000 in the previous two years”.

As we already know, we live in one of the most expensive regions for property so as we would expect, prices here are considerably higher. We’ve looked at our data source which is based on Land Registry statistics. Using this data we can report that the average price for property in Tattenham and Preston is £523,987 an increase of 8.5% over the year. The chart below shows average prices for the standard property types ranging from £955,669 for detached houses, an increase of 11.8%, to £308,954 for flats & maisonettes, an increase of 4.2%.

These figures  are based on Land Registry data collected from completed sales. It is more accurate than sales data but tends to trail behind current sale prices. We use data for the Epsom & Ewell local authority area as being more accurate for Tattenham & Preston than using data for Reigate & Banstead where property prices are lower in the southern part of the Borough. It should also be acknowledged that these are only average prices, and the actual cost of a property may vary significantly depending on  size, condition, number of bedrooms and availability of amenities.

The Times article goes on to put this massive price rise down to the pandemic. People are considering their priorities and where they want to live. Wanting to move out of the city,  more space and a garden are driving demand. The fact that houses in Tattenham & Preston show larger increases than flats and maisonettes supports this assumption.  There are also significantly more buyers than sellers in the market. This is encouraging sellers to pre-empt this high demand with higher prices to cash in on buyer desperation. The view of market experts is that this trend is likely to continue in the short term with more people looking for a new home than properties available. But higher interest rates, inflation and cost of living rises may lead to a slow-down in the longer term.