Fulham Property Buyers Turn Back to Traditional Homes

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Terraced houses still sought after while new build flats remain unsold

The shift of focus in the Fulham property market from new build apartments to traditional homes continued in the second quarter of 2018, with the Land Registry recording no new build sales during the period at local upmarket developments.

The lack of investors at developments such as Lillie Square and Chelsea Creek meant a drop in both the number of flats changing hands - down to 69, a drop of 60.1% over the year - and the average flat price, down 11.7% from the same period in 2017, to £693,054.

And while the value of terraced houses showed a small rise, up 3.7% to £1,607,303 the change in the flat market dragged the overall average down by 10.7% to £1,061,815.

While no brand new flats were sold, there were a number of resales at Fulham's developments, including two of the lowest priced properties, two small apartments in Meadows House in Chelsea Creek's Park Street, pictured below, which changed hands for £234,957 and £265,104 respectively.

The current pressure on developers is illustrated by the fact that a four bedroom 'ultimate penthouse' in the same building has had its price tag reduced by over half a million pounds, with agent Savills now selling it for £7,250,000.

By contrast, the prices of semi-detached and terraced houses in popular areas such as Hurlingham and the 'ABC' streets by the river appear to be holding up, with ten homes selling for above £2 million.

The highest priced sale between April and June was of a Peterborough Estate 'lion' house in Quarrendon Street, pictured below, which changed hands for £4 million.

Meanwhile a house in Mulgrave Crescent, overlooking Eel Brook Common, achieved a price of £3,755,000.

The subdued property market, amidst continuing uncertainty over Brexit is gloomy news for local estate agents. In its latest quarterly residential market report, Strutt and Parker says: " We expect this stagnation in prices to persist for the remainder of 2018 with the possibility of further negative growth as both globally and domestically the economy and political environments remain volatile.

"From 2019 onwards it is extremely difficult to forecast this market with any certainty but we would expect some bounce back once more stability has returned."

Wandsworth Bridge Road based agent Fine & Country strike a slightly more upbeat note in its latest report, saying: " The economic and political backdrop and the prospect of future interest rate rises have conspired to keep positive sentiment somewhat caged. The burden of higher stamp duty and the weak prime London housing market has also contributed to relatively muted price growth. Indeed, London has seen far more price adjustments than the regional markets.

" However, well-priced properties continue to sell, and precision pricing continues to attract competitive bidding. We are at the trough of the housing market cycle, but the pillars on which the market sits are still fundamentally stable.

"We expect that more positive sentiment will be released into the market if a Brexit deal is completed in October and afterwards the market will gather pace, as dictated by interest rate rises and economic growth."

The latest House Price Index data published by the Land Registry shows that London prices are the only ones that have fallen over the last year (to May) with the average now £478,853.

Figures for July from the Nationwide House Price Index show that the average price of a home in the UK rose by 2.5% to £217,010.

The was before the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will increased rates at their next meeting at the beginning of the month from 0.5% to 0.75%.

There is not a high degree of concern that the rise in interest rates will have much impact on the property market. Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide's Chief Economist, said: "Providing the economy does not weaken further, the impact of a further small rise in interest rates on UK households is likely to be modest.

"This is partly because only a relatively small proportion of borrowers will be directly impacted by the change. Most lending on personal loans and credit cards is fixed or tends to be unaffected by movements in the Bank Rate. Similarly, in recent years, the vast majority of new mortgages have been extended on fixed interest rates."

Updates on the local property market are regularly published in the Fulham newsletter.

Fulham Property Prices (April - June 2018)
Area	Semi-det	Sales	Terraced	Sales	Flat/ mais	Sales	Overall ave	Total sales
SW6 1	0	0	1727500	2	541958	3	1016175	5
SW6 2	0	0	857500	4	668938	23	696873	27
SW6 3	0	0	2300714	7	825729	7	1563221	14
SW6 4	0	0	2051000	5	934158	6	1441814	11
SW6 5	0	0	1625833	6	644580	10	1012550	16
SW6 6	2607500	2	1387428	8	661529	14	1065660	24
SW6 7	1050000	1	1311111	9	619500	6	1035437	16
Total	2088333	3	1607303	41	693054	69	1061815	113
Change over quarter	-27.6%	0.0%	3.7%	-10.9%	-31.8%	-46.5%	-10.5%	-36.5%
Change over year	26.8%	-40.0%	-6.3%	-4.7%	-11.7%	-60.1%	6.7%	-49.3%
Change over three years	-23.8%	-25.0%	-6.5%	-46.8%	-19.1%	-63.5%	-6.1%	-58.1%
Change over five years	90.7%	200.0%	9.5%	-64.7%	12.3%	-65.2%	14.0%	-64.1%
Change over ten years	130.8%	-57.1%	65.0%	-38.8%	22.5%	-50.7%	50.7%	-47.2%

 

August 10, 2018