Croydon House Prices Down Again

The UK as a whole has seen house prices head in two very different directions in the past 12 months. After rising rapidly for much of 2022, they turned in the summer as rising interest rates and the cost-of-living crisis took their toll, leading to falls in the later months of the year.

However, it is always important to check what is happening in a local area, as some locations can buck national trends. That is why it makes sense to talk to estate agents in Croydon about what is going on in the borough.

The latest Land Registry data, for December 2022, showed that the national price picture was one of a month-on-month decline of 0.4 per cent. Over the course of last year, London saw the lowest annual price increase, a 6.7 per cent.

Croydon came 21^st out of 33 London authorities in 2022 for price and, most recently, it saw a 0.5 per cent decline in prices in December, whereas London as a whole was static. This was in contrast with the situation even in early autumn, with the typical Croydon price rising by £13,000 in September.

All this means there are different considerations whether you are looking to buy or to sell. On the one hand, you may have to lower your asking price from what you might have expected a few months ago to achieve a sale. However, if you are looking for a bargain, you might have a lower price to go for, albeit a fact to be balanced with higher mortgage rates than a few months back.

It will also be important to keep in touch with what happens over the next few months. Most commentators expect house prices to fall across the UK, but the most recent Halifax House Price Index revealed the decline had just about ground to a halt in January. 

If this is an indicator of a new shift in the fortunes of the market, it will be important to see how it manifests in Croydon.