Town’s housing scene 'bucking national trend'

3:00pm Monday 19th May 2008

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THE price of houses in St Helens appears to be bucking the national slump, according to John O Gorman, a local director with Halifax Estate Agents.

He told the Star: "Everyone seems to be talking about house prices and crashes at the moment, mainly driven by scaremongering in the national media and not helped, I must admit, by Halifax's latest house price index report which was picked up by the national press.

"Unfortunately they focused in only on a 2.5% fall in the national average house prices and left out all the other commentary and sound fundamentals underpinning the housing market."

In the North West the report identified an increase so far this year of 1.3% and recorded only a small fall of 0.5% in March.

John continued: "Just to put things in perspective, when they talk about a 2.5% fall nationally this is based on an average house price of £194,094, but here in St Helens according to the latest Land Registry figures the average house price is only £129,475 well below the national average and therefore by no means at the top end of the spectrum."

He decided to take a closer look at the local statistics as he believes the market had been quite healthy here though recent headlines left both buyers and sellers feeling very confused as to what to do.

John said: "Having checked out the Land Registry site for St Helens to see if there was any real evidence locally, the report provides a comparison breakdown for house prices from December 2007 through to February this year for St Helens.

"Average house prices according to the report have actually gone up in recent months in every category of housing, the most recent report indicates that in St Helens the annual house price change is actually up 9.1%, this is in contrast to the national and North West reports which seem to have grabbed the headlines.

"I personally feel that it is as a result of the type of housing stock within the area. Thankfully in St Helens we have a good selection of first-time buyer properties starting from as little as £70,000 and for growing families a house with a garden can be acquired from as little as £120,000 upwards. This is in direct contrast to other major areas where first-time buyers are having to find at least £100,000 just to get on the ladder.

"We also continue to experienced high demand from buy-to-let investors who like to buy two and three-bedroomed terraced properties locally, this has released even more people to move up market and acquire an affordable second home.

"The main problem in other areas is that their first-time buyers have been priced out of the market and buy-to-let investors have also found it more difficult to cover their mortgage costs due to high initial purchase costs.

"Less sales at the bottom end of the market results in fewer people being released to acquire their next home. Fewer buyers in a position to move up the ladder results in more competition for buyers and more competitive asking prices."

John concludes: "The fact that here in St Helens we have a great mix of affordable properties in comparison to other locations, a healthy first-time buyer and investor market has enabled the average house price locally to continue to rise."