PART 1: Local Homeowners are only moving every 13.5 years

The average house price in Oakham is 12.6 times the average annual Oakham salary.

This is higher than the last peak of 2008 when the ratio was 9.8. 

 Some commentators have anticipated following the Brexit vote, UK property prices might drop like a stone. In reality, some have and some haven’t. 

The market for Oakham’s swankiest properties does appear fragile (although they are selling if they are realistically priced) and overall, Oakham property price growth has slowed, but the lower to middle Oakham property market appears to be quite strong.

Oakham residents are moving home less often than they once did. Data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the number of properties sold in 2016 is again much lower than it was in the ‘noughties’. 

 

 

Even though we are not anywhere near the post credit crunch (2008 and 2009) low levels of property sales, the torpor of the Oakham housing market following the 2016 Brexit vote has seen the number of property sales in Oakham and the surrounding local authority area level off to what appears to be the start of a new long term trend (compared the ‘noughties’).

Today the property sales figures in the Oakham area since 2010/11, a new trend of number of property sales appears to have started. Interestingly, this has been mirrored nationally. The reasons behind this are complex, but a good place to start is the growth rate of real UK household disposable income, which has fallen from 5.01% a year in 2000 to 1.68% in 2016.  Also, things have deteriorated since the country voted to leave the EU as consumer price inflation has risen to 2.7% per annum, meaning inflation has eaten away at the real value of wages (as they have only grown by 1.1% in the same time frame).

With meagre ‘real income’ growth, it has become more difficult for homeowners to accumulate the savings needed to climb up the housing ladder as the level of saving has also dropped from 4.26% of household income to -1.11% (i.e. people are eating into their savings).

Next week in part two of this topic, I will be discussing how these issues (and other issues) has meant the level of Oakham people moving home has slumped to once every 13.5 years.


David Crooke
Owner and MD

david@upp-property.co.uk