Wellingborough Property Market Report – November 2024

The average asking price of the 749 properties for sale in Wellingborough was £262,747 in October 2024.

This is a fall of £10,108 (3.70%) from the same month of 2023. Since I started collecting the data in January 2021, the average asking price has risen from £215,584 to ££262,747. A rise of £47,163 (21.88%).

As we can see, asking prices were levelling out at around the £275,000 mark, though are beginning to fall a little.
The average asking prices of sold properties is at 245,170, though this is still £17,577 (7.2%) lower than the average asking price of all properties for sale (£262,747).
Whilst this is quite a significant gap, it’s far less than the peak difference of £62,545 (22.9%) in October 2023 and less than £52,171 (23.8%) in May this year.

For the past six months, the amount of sold properties has remained relatively steady at 9.8%, 10.1%, 8.7%, 6.7%, 8.5% and 9.9% (with the small dip occurring during the summer holiday period).

Even with the increasing number of properties for sale, the sold percentage shows no signs of falling just yet.

The highest I have on record is 14% in the post lockdown market of February 2022, with interest rates at near 0%. The lowest being 4.5% nearly a year ago in the festive period of December 2023.

If asking prices were to fall by 5%, they would be £249,610 (approximately the same as they were in November 2021)

If they were to fall 10%, they would be £236,472 (equivalent to around August 2021 prices)

What will happen in the property market in 2025 and beyond?

Average house prices are projected to rise by £84,000 over the next five years, according to the latest forecast from property adviser Savills.

With inflation returning to the 2% target and the likelihood of further interest rate reductions over the next two years, house prices are expected to resume steady year-on-year growth. The five-year mainstream house price forecast, released by Savills, anticipates a 4% rise in house prices in 2025 (up from a previous forecast of 3.5%), equivalent to around £14,500.

By the end of the five-year period to 2029, prices are expected to increase by 23.4%.

Accoring to Nationwide, UK house price growth unexpectedly slowed last month, but has also warned buyers to expect a surge in transactions early next year due to upcoming changes in stamp duty rules announced in the budget.

The building society’s monthly index revealed that annual house price growth was 2.4% in October, down from the nearly two-year high of 3.2% recorded in September. This remains the third highest annual growth rate since December 2022, though it fell short of experts’ expectations; a Reuters poll of economists had forecast a 2.8% increase for the month.

Lettings

The average asking rent in Wellingborough fell by £34 in the last two months, from £1,067 to £1,033.

However, the current asking rent has increased by £131 (14.5%) compared to the same month last year and £330 (46.9%) from when I started collating the data in January 2021.

JLL forecast UK rents will rise 17% over the next five years. In September, Zoopla predicted that they would rise by 5% in 2025.

For rental prices to slow down more quickly, there needs to be an increase in available properties and/or the financial burden on landlords via mortgage rates and increased legislation to come down. Nevertheless, it’s improbable that any changes in the above will be substantial enough to significantly affect overall rental increases.

In fact, it's extremely plausible that the likely abolition of Section 21 may see more landlords leaving the private rented sector, leaving fewer homes available to rent and therefore rent increases due to higher demand.

*All data sourced from Zoopla Pro