Wellingborough Property Market Update – February 2023

Now the first full month of 2023 has been and gone, we can now take a look at what the data tells us about Wellingborough’s property sales and rental market.

There were 636 properties listed for sale at some point during January. 69 (12.2%) more than the same time last year. Not only are the number of properties that are for sale on the up, the percentage of them that have agreed a sale has increased from 9.5% to 12.4% too.

The average asking price of properties took a small dip in January, falling by 0.46% (£1,291) compared to December 2022, though still higher than any other point since I began collecting the data back in January 2021.

In fact, asking prices have risen by 8.72% (£18,791) in the last 12 months and 28.2% (£60,882) since Jan 2021.

Asking prices of properties coming up for sale have dropped again for the third consecutive month, and are now 11.7% (£34,736) lower than the peak in December 2021. This could be because vendors are starting to adjusting their asking prices downwards, to fall more in line with what buyers are willing to pay. This is confirmed with the number of properties with reduced asking prices accounting for 10.1% of the market. This number has been steadily increasing since June 2022 when it was just 3.1%.

Further evidence of the market correcting itself is the average asking price of properties that have agreed a sale has dropped by 12.3% (£31,573) compared to January 2022.

When properties are listed for sale, they usually have ‘buffer room’ in the asking price to account for negotiating on the final sale price, but the gap between the price of new properties for sale and the advertised price of sold properties is 14.2% (£37,384), which is higher than you’d expect a ‘buffer’ to be.

This suggests that asking prices still have a little way to come down, but the affordability for buyers is rising as interest rates settle and the cost of living crisis begins to alleviate.

The latest forecasts predict that house prices will fall between 5-10% this year. Some even envisage a fall of just 3%, but if we take the worst case scenario of a 10% drop, asking prices would be the same as in November 2021. I believe price corrections will continue through this year, but no major crash.

Lettings

The average asking rent in Wellingborough in 2022 was £774. It now stands at £786. Slightly lower than the peak of £811 in November 2022, but still 11.8% (£83) higher than two years ago.

Zoopla’s forecast is bittersweet. While it thinks the rate at which rents will rise over the coming year will slow, new renters will still be paying more. It predicts rents attached to new tenancies will rise 5% in 2023.

With house prices falling and rents on the rise, there could be opportunities for buy-to-let landlords to add to their portfolios.