Chichester property prices rise 241% in twenty years!

I was talking to a landlord this week about the merits of holding property for the long-term. He told me how he had started purchasing properties back in the mid-nineties when “buy-to-let” was unheard of and property prices had been depressed for nearly a decade.

The conversation intrigued me enough to look through the land registry data to see how house prices had changed over those past twenty years and this is what I found.

The average property price in England and Wales in January 1995 was £62,124. Fast forward twenty years to January this year and prices have leapt 188.2%, to stand at an average price of £179,006.

It was interesting to note that prices have done even better here in Chichester. The average property in Chichester sold for £104,825 back in January 1995. This has increased by 240.6% as the average property price in Chichester had grown to £357,013 in January 2015. That’s an outperformance against the rest of the country of nearly 30%!

When I told my landlord of this he was surprised from his experience that prices hadn’t risen even more. Specific properties in Chichester do indeed seem to have fared even better. Land registry data shows a two bedroom house in Chatsworth Road on Arundel Park sold for £49,000 in January 1995. The same property is likely to be valued at around £200,000 today, which would indicate an increase of 308% in the same twenty year period.

Whilst past performance is no guarantee of future returns, imagine if the trajectory of house prices was to continue at the same rate. That would mean in 2035 the average house price in England and Wales would be £515,895 and in Chichester it would be over £1.2million!

These figures may sound fanciful now, but I’m sure the same could’ve been said of today’s prices twenty years ago when many were still coping with the after-effects of Black Wednesday, 15% interest rates and faced negative equity on their home.

Whatever happens to house prices, I still firmly believe that Chichester will outperform the overall market. This has been proven to be the case historically and I see no reason why the continually strong demand to live in our beautiful city will change.

The data even shows that this year has started more positively for property prices in Chichester too. Whilst prices nationally have slipped 0.56% since January, here in Chichester they have continued their upward trend, increasing by 1.1% in just a few months.

Please contact me if you are looking to purchase a rental property and would like some free and impartial advice about investing in the current market.

(This article was featured in the Chichester Observer's property section on 28th May 2015)

Clive Janes, CRJ Lettings.  www.crjlettings.co.uk

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E-mail me on clive@crjlettings.co.uk or call 01243 624 599.

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