House prices climbing

[Harrison]

What is the housing market at the moment where you live?

You might think that due to the pandemic and lockdowns that housing sales would slump and prices would fall. But the opposite has happened in the UK. Maybe because many people were furrowed and actually using their houses. A lot of people, including us, had building work done this year. And many seem to have been moving house.

We had our house valued last year by a surveyor for a mortgage renewal and the value had increased £40k since we purchased it in late 2015. We thought that was great.

But prices have suddenly been climbing a lot since then. A house in my road went on the market this week. A 3 bedroom semi detached 1930s house with a garage and small garden. It's listed at £335k. Last year that would have been about £285k. That means our house could have easily gained another £50k. Possibly more now we have had work done plus the art studio/log cabin installed in the garden.

Of course it also means every other house has gone up in price too, so although you can sell for far more to move up also not costs more and the gap between property levels has grown.