Miserably low level of transactions in TW8 area

The latest figures from the Land Registry will make miserable reading for developers with large projects in the Brentford area.

With other parts of West London seeing a sharp rebound in the number of property transactions, Brentford is being a major laggard with only 27 sales being reported so far this year. In the area north of the A4 (the TW8 9 post code sector) there were no sales reported at all.

With large number of units still to come to the market it remains unclear how these will be sold.

Prices have done well in the last quarter although this could be more a reflection of buyers focusing on better quality properties rather than a general move upward in the market. The average sale price in TW8 in the first quarter of this year was £273,794 which was up 27.9% from the same period in 2009. However, the extent of the rise is artificially boosted due to no houses at all being sold in the first quarter of 2009 compared to 8 in 2010.

London has been the best performing region of the country over the last twelve months to the end of March with the average price in the capital rising by 13% to £336,409. The rest of the country has seen rises of 7.5% bringing the national average to £164,288 although prices did fall slightly during March.

Right Move's House Price index, which is based on offered prices rather than sales prices, is showing that in April sellers ignored pre-election concerns and put prices up by 2.6% in the month. In London the average asking price is now £421,822.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove said, “Rarer property types in desirable locations are achieving record prices. For ‘location, location, location’ you can also read ‘cash, cash, cash’. Conversely, in areas where buyers have less access to cash or mortgage finance, or there is an over-supply of a certain property type, then sellers are having to price much more aggressively to secure a sale. There is increasing divergence between these different markets, with agents reporting some pockets where a couple of viewings find a cash-rich buyer, whereas a few miles down the road it’s taking over 20 viewings to achieve a sale”.

Although political uncertainty appears to have had little impact on property in the UK thus far he expects the market to go into 'suspended animation' until a clearer picture emerges on the stability of the new Government.

The latest reported sales are given in the table below.

Where do I live? Brentford TW8 postcodes are divided into three sectors, TW8 0xx, TW8 8xx and TW8 9xx. Broadly speaking, TW8 0xx covers areas east of Boston Manor Road, TW8 8xx goes west of Boston Manor Road, whilst TW8 9xx covers the areas to the north of the A4.

Brentford Property Prices - March 2010

September 3, 2010