News | House prices


downsmail.co.uk Summer house prices to hot up


THE summer looks set to see further growth in property prices across the region, according to estate agents in the borough.


With mortgage interest rates on


offer at an all-time low, in spite of the Bank of England warning that interest rates will rise this year, property prices across Maidstone, Malling and the region stand 5.9% higher than a year ago. Claire Harvey, from Seekers in


Maidstone, believes house prices in the area over the next 12 months will end up between 0.2% lower and 1.5% higher, although she warns itwill “probably be a bumpy ride to get to these sorts of figures”. The influence of inflation, rising in- terest rates, and Brexit, and its effect on the London market will be among themajor factors, she says. Aquick look at property prices by


Downs Mail on five of the key house sellingwebsites puts average prices on a two-bed house inMaid- stone at £220,000 and a five-bed at £569,000; in Tovil £193,000 and £568,000 respectively, while in Bearsted, the same properties will set you back £387,000 and £618,000. InWestMalling, the average price


is £308,000 and £688,000 for a five- bed home, and in Aylesford £259,000 and £625,000. In villages such as Staplehurst, the


same size properties are command- ing an average £300,000 and £605,000. Tim Ferris, the owner of Ferris


and Co estate agents,which has of- fices in Bearsted and Penenden Heath, says 2018 started with a shortage of properties to sell. He added: “But thenwe gained a


healthy supply of properties and are experiencing great demand across all price ranges. We were warned at the beginning of the year by Governor of the Bank of Eng-


THE average property price inKent shot up by around £11,000 in 2017. According to Zoopla, the average


value of properties in parts of Kent sawastonishing rises. For example, figures showSwan-


ley, which has an average price of £364,434, saw the highest leap in property value of £28,110. In Tonbridge, with an average


property value of £482,180, prices went up by an average of £24,128. West Malling saw the average


property price increase to £480,023, a jump of £24,071. According to Zoopla figures, it


comes as the average price of a property in Kent is £11,418 more than a year ago, at £346,048.


34 Maidstone May 2018


Nigel Harvey, director at Seekers estate agents, believes prices in theMaidstone area will remain ‘resilient’


land, Mark Carney, interest rates would rise this year by one or two quarter points, which will slow the market and so the spring and sum- merwill undoubtedly represent the most buoyant period in the prop- ertymarket in 2018.” NigelHarvey, director at Seekers,


concludes: “Maidstone house val- ueswill remain resilient because de- mand for rental property remains strong,with persistent immigration and population growth and the simple lack of new house building inMaidstone - not even keeping up with current demand, let alone eat- ing into years of under investment . It means one thing: property own- ership and investment inMaidstone will always outride the storm.”


But, in some areas, the average


property value has fallen. In Romney Marsh, properties


dropped by £9,021 on average to £277,677 and Longfield sawa drop of £2,754 to make its overall prop- erty price £460,862. Managing director of Rochester


estate agents Dockside Property Services, Spencer Fortag, said that property investments boosts con- sumer spending and economic growth. But he conceded a strong sellers’


market makes homes less afford- able for the first-time buyer. He added: “It’s almost a forgone


conclusion that house prices in- crease so it’s no great surprise.”


Average prices across the region Location


(Prices in £k) Maidstone


Barming Fant Tovil


Bearsted Leeds


Grove Green Headcorn


East Farleigh Staplehurst


WestMalling


Holborough Lakes Aylesford


2-bed flat


224 197 181 177 282 –


207 200 188 160 330 296 259


2-bed house


222 280 240 193 387 292 257 374 202 300 309 300 266


3-bed house


320 335 307 332 448 347 310 425 402 318 469 364 320


5-bed house


570 619 –


568 618 870 608 671 793 605 689 –


625 Kent rises ‘astonishing’ National hike unexpected


HOUSE prices in the United Kingdom in March saw the biggest monthly gain since Au- gust, according to the Halifax. The country’s biggestmortgage


lender said that the average price of a house rose by 1.5%to £227,871 last month.Prices in the three months to March were 2.7% higher than the year before, up from the 1.8% annual growth in February.The news was unex- pected after months of lacklustre growth and even declines in De- cember and January, saidHalifax. Even in the capital,where house


prices have seen a sustained rise in recent years, there were drops of 15% in prime locations such as


Wandsworth. But Samuel Tombs, the chief UK economist at Pan- theon Macroeconomics, said: “The jump in Halifax’s measure of house prices in March just looks like volatility, rather than the start of a strong upward trend. Halifax’s index is prone to large swings.” Russell Galley, Halifax’s man-


aging director, said low unem- ployment, lowmortgage rates and the ongoing shortage of proper- ties for salewould underpin price growth in comingmonths. Halifax is predicting annual


price growth to remain close to 3%. Additonal research:AmyMartin


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