Our regular Bristol and UK property reports are written by economist Chris Worthington, who is a regular speaker at our PIMs.
New Developments
The Bristol housing market continues to benefit from new housing developments that will provide opportunities for buy to let (BTL) investors.
Filton Airfield, where the Concorde aircraft was built, is set to become a new neighbourhood, with 2600 homes being built over the next 20 years. A 17,000 seat music and entertainment arena will be at the centre of the development.
In June the Council’s planning committee approved planning permission for 173 new homes at Airport Road. The developer is BlokLok UK Ltd, a company that is owned jointly by IKEA and construction company Skanska. The homes will be built off site using a smart industrialised process. BlokLok has built 12,000 homes in Scandinavia and the Bristol development is one of the first in the UK.
House Prices
The latest UK House Price Index for 65 towns and cities in the UK, published by Zoopla in association with property analyst company Hometrack, shows that the top half of the league table for year on year growth in average house prices is dominated by towns and cities in the North of England and the Midlands.
Bristol has a high score with a year on year increase in house prices of 3.5%. This is highest of any town and city in the South in England, apart from Brighton and Worthing, where the recent growth in house prices will probably have been boosted by demand from people leaving London to work from home.
The house price index also includes the growth in house prices since 2007.
Using that metric Bristol is third in the league table at 48%. London (59%) and Southend (50%) are at first and second in the league table.
This shows that house price growth in Bristol has been consistently high year on year for well over a decade, boosting the confidence to invest on the part of developers and producing good long term rates of return for BTL investors.
The Zoopla UK House Price Twenty City Index also shows the current average house price for the main cities in the UK.
The average house price in Bristol is currently £288,000, compared with the average for the UK of £223,000.
Only four cities have higher average house prices than Bristol. These are London (£485,000), Cambridge (£415,000), Oxford (£407,000) and Bournemouth (£294,000).
In the long run could the growth in house prices in Bristol slow down? It is buoyed up by the underlying strength of the local economy and by demand from people moving from London. Neither of these are likely to diminish for the foreseeable future.
Our Next Property Meeting
We will all be discussing the latest position on the property market in Bristol and across the UK in the light of Covid-19 at our next PIM.
We’ll be arranging this when we consider it is safe and practical to do so.
Meanwhile, stay safe.
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