West Country rules for home buyers: Swindon named most in-demand area for property sales, while Bexley remains as London's top borough
The West Country town ranked as the UK's most in-demand place in which to live, according to Emoov, while Bexley remains the most popular spot for completed sales in London.
The online estate agent measured the level of demand in towns and cities by comparing the number of homes for sale with the number of homes sold in each area, getting a percentage ratio for each area.
Mid-way between Bristol and Reading and 71 miles from London, Swindon, which scored the highest demand percentage of 66 per cent, is on the M4 and has direct trains to London taking an hour and 20 minutes. George Harding, a property valuer at Swindon estate agent Charles Harding, says the town’s greatest appeal lies in its relative good value for property.
“Price is the most attractive thing about Swindon,” he said.
“A standard two-bedroom first-time buyer home costs between £170,000 and £180,000. We see mostly local buyers who’ve grown up here and want to stay in Swindon, but in the middle price bracket of £300,000-£350,000, people can be moving out from Reading because prices are really pushing up there.
“Investment buyers are interested because of the prices you can purchase at and there’s a lot of new build over the north side of Swindon, which is popular with buyers because the resale prices seem to be really holding up.”
DEMAND FOR LONDON HOMES FALLING
In contrast to good-value Swindon, London is seeing its fortune head in the opposite direction, with buyer demand falling by 15 per cent to 23 per cent since the end of 2017.
House prices in every London borough, April 2018
The most popular areas in the capital for homebuyers were Bexley, Bromley, Barking and Dagenham, Lewisham and Croydon, which are among the cheapest places to buy a home in the capital.
High London house prices were also pushing buyers out to the commuter belt. Ashford and Folkestone in Kent and Rochford and Colchester in Essex and Stevenage in Hertfordshire were the top three commuter spots for home buyers in the first three months of 2018.
“There are plenty of pockets across the nation that continue to see strong levels of buyer interest, however, market uncertainty has seen many sellers refrain from selling and in turn, the lack of varied stock has seen buyer demand, in general, remain restricted,” said Russell Quirk, founder of Emoov.co.uk.
“As we now enter the busiest period of the year for home sellers and buyers, we should see demand across the board stabilise.”