My 14 year-old has started his GCSE’s this year. He wants to be a Chartered Surveyor as he loves buildings and anything to do with cars. He posed the fascinating question last week which got me thinking…

So this weekend, I sat down and calculated what the total value of all the properties in Walsall are worth … and just for fun, worked out how much they have gone up in value since he was born back in the summer of 2002! I used information from the latest census, land registry and the ONS.

So, here you are…

In the last 14 years, since the autumn of 2002, the total value of Walsall property has increased by 95% or £8.3 billion to a total of £16.1 billion. Interesting, when you consider the FTSE100 has risen by 68.9% and inflation (i.e. the UK Retail Price Index) rose by 38.7% during the same 14 years.

When I delved deeper into the numbers, the average price currently being paid by Walsall households stands at £166,408… but you know me, I wasn’t going to stop there, so I split the property market down into individual property types in Walsall; the average numbers come out like this ..

Walsall Property Market
Average Value of a Detached Property	Average Value of a Semi-Detached Property	Average Value of a Terrace/ Town House Property	Average Value of an Apartment/ Maisonette
£292,060	£162,250	£122,545	£117,151

 

… yet it got even more fascinating when I multiplied the total number of each type of property by the average value. The reason why semi-detached properties came out so high is due to the market share of this type of property. The modest Walsall semi-detached property makes up 42.1% of the entire Walsall property market!

Total Value of Walsall Detached Properties	Total Value of Walsall Semi-Detached Properties	Total Value of Walsall Terraced/ Town House Properties	Total Value of Walsall Apartments/ Maisonettes
£2,946,630,000	£6,778,100,000	£3,590,030,000	£2,785,300,000

 

This shows a graphical summary:

 

 

So, what does this all mean for Walsall?  Well as we enter the unchartered waters of 2017 and beyond, even though property values are already declining in certain parts of the previously over cooked Central London property market, the outlook in Walsall remains relatively good as over the last five years, the local property market was a lot more sensible than central London’s.

Walsall house values will remain resilient for several reasons. Firstly, demand for rental property remains strong with continued immigration and population growth.  Secondly, with 0.25% interest rates, borrowing has never been so cheap and finally the simple lack of new house building in Walsall not keeping up with current demand, let alone eating into years and years of under investment – means only one thing – yes it might be a bumpy ride over the next 12 to 24 months but, in the medium term, property ownership and property investment in Walsall has always, and will always, ride out the storm.

So when I informed my son about my findings… “Oh” he said, “That’s a lot of money…!”

In the coming weeks, I will look in greater detail at my thoughts for the 2017 Walsall Property Market. As always, all my articles can be found here in the Walsall Property Market Blog.

Email: salekm@ashmorelettings.co.uk

Phone: 01922 311016