Hampstead House owners desert the housing market with an 8 year low

Even though the housing market is in an upbeat state in many parts of the UK, getting on the property ladder is still challenging for many and regarded as unattainable by some.  However, that goal has become even worse recently in Hampstead as the number of houses available to buy is at an 8 year all time low.

Back in Summer 2008, there were over 1,600 properties for sale in Hampstead and since then this has steadily declined year on year, so now there are only 744 for sale in the suburb. This continuing diminishing supply of housing has been happening over those years for a while and there simply aren’t enough properties in Hampstead to match demand.

According to a recent report by the National Association of Estate Agents, that said, “There are now 11 house hunters fighting after every available house which isn’t sustainable.” What that means is Hampstead youngsters, who are looking to buy their first home, are finding themselves being squeezed out by the competition. However, in the meantime, nobody wants to live with parents until they are in their 30’s, so that in turn creates demand for more rental properties, which means landlords have a greater demand for more rental properties so are buying more, resulting in even less smaller properties for the youngsters to buy, it’s a vicious circle.  

Talking to fellow agents, mortgage arrangers, surveyors and solicitors in the suburb, all of whom have extensive dealings in the Hampstead property market like myself, most of us agree the movement in the Hampstead market is taking place in the middle to upper end. One has to go higher up the ladder to see its second and third steppers pushing through the properties that are being bought and sold.

That has meant as people tend to move less in the middle to upper market, the number of the properties actually selling has drastically reduced over the last couple of years.

When we look at the individual areas of the suburb, it paints an interesting picture.NW3  – Hampstead, Belsize Park, Frognal, Childs Hill (east/south/west), South Hampstead (south), Swiss Cottage (south), Primrose Hill (south), Chalk Farm (south) and Gospel Oak (east)  56 properties sold in May 2015 (with a average value of £ 1,328,098), whilst over the Summer months of 2014, the number of properties selling in this postcode reached into the mid 80’s.

So what does this all mean for homeowners and landlords alike in Hampstead?  Demand for Hampstead property is good, especially at the lower end of the market. However, with fewer properties coming up for sale, it means property prices are proving reasonably stable too.

You see I believe a more stable, consistent Hampstead property market, with less people seeing property as an easy way to make a quick buck (as many did in the early 2000’s when prices were rising at nearly 20% a year so people were buying and selling every other minute). Instead a property market that has a steady growth of property values in Hampstead, year on year, without the massive peaks and troughs we saw in the late 1980’s and mid/late 2000’s might just be the thing that the Hampstead property market needs in the long term.

For more insights, comments and facts on the Hampstead Property market please visit the Hampstead Property Blog www.NW3propertyblog.com  where you will find many similar articles to this.

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