St Albans residents less likely to move, study shows
Latest figures show increased mortgage choice and better rates post-Brexit - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
New figures have been released showing how St Albans compares to other areas when it comes to the number of houses on the market.
And just for a change, the sought after cathedral city fared below average.
While Torquay has the peak amount of household properties for sale (4.68 per cent), closely followed by East Central London (4.67 per cent) and Bournemouth (4.52 per cent), just 2.59 percent of St Albans homes were on the market last month.
St Albans was below the average (3.32 per cent) and came 84th on the poll of 104 areas, which revealed that 2,570 of the 99,381 homes on the last census were on the market in June.
This puts St Albans on a similar par to Leicester (2.52 per cent), Stoke-on-Trent (2.5 per cent) and Hull (2.52 per cent).
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But property experts say while it could signal potentially bad news for buyers faced with less choice, it might be good news for sellers who will face less competition – unless they are trying to buy within the same postcode.
The research, carried out by online estate agent website SellingUp.com, was undertaken to compare the state of the property market across England and Wales.
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It took the number of households in different postcode areas and calculated which proportion of those were listed for sale on leading property portals in the month of the EU Referendum.
The study looked at 2,269 postcode districts as listed in the 2011 census.
The highest percentage was 4.68 (Torquay) and the lowest was 2.02 percent (Southall) – with North London (2.13 per cent) and Birmingham (2.12 percent) also falling in to the bottom three.
Seaside resorts dominated the top 10 with holiday/retirement areas having peak numbers of homes up for grabs in Blackpool, Llandudno and Truro in West Cornwall, which includes Newquay, St Ives and Penzance.
But it could also signal a trend towards home improvement with residents sometimes preferring to invest in making their houses better, rather than moving to a new property.
Mortgage broker and director of Elite Mortgage Finance, Andrew Nicolaides, said: “A lot of my clients are remortgaging and choosing to refurbish and extend their properties to make more living space, so they don’t need to move.
“When property prices are as high as they are, it’s often more cost effective and easier for homeowners to get the finance to extend compared to selling up.”
