Normal for a house price to increase this much?

[Wildflower123]

Looking to buy a house and seen one priced at £225,000.

It was last sold in December 2018 for £208,000.

Zero work has been done to it (compared the photos) same kitchen and bathroom. The garden if anything looks worse .. nothing major just overgrown.

It’s based in the East Midlands

Can a house price really increase by £17,000 in a year?

A house is worth what the current market will pay for it. It doesnt have to be improved. If similar house have sold for similar recently then it will go on at that price. The market has been sluggish for many years but the East Midlands had had surges in some areas. The values can also significantly drop in a recession

Yes I'd say that's normal. Our neighbour's house went up 40k in 12 months with no work done to it.

Yep

Yes

I mean, it can do but only if someone is willing to pay the price. Sometimes people have a figure in mind at which it would be worth moving and market it at that price regardless of local market inflation and the estate agents will give it a punt or wait for the vendors to lose optimism and reduce the price.

It only increases by what someone is willing to pay and they are willing to sell it for.

Yes absolutely it could raise by that much, but the rise is only validated if someone pays it. If they pay 220. Then that's the rise.

We made £37,000 in 2 years on our first house, all we did was rip up 1 carpet and lay laminate. I think it's just market at the time/the type of property/desirability of the area etc!

We live opposite an eyesore of a building, boarded up pub. The previous owner lost 2 sales as a result, so we managed to get £40k off the asking price. I've no doubt once that's done up and reopened our house will increase in value from what we paid, could there be a similar nearby property?

It can but you are comparing an asking price to a sold price. It is not uncommon for asking prices to be inflated. A rule of thumb is that you can usually realise about 95% of asking price in a stable market. Less in a falling market and more in a rising market.

Two options to test the prices

1. Find out what the average increase has been in the local area based on sold prices. Or

, 2. look at sale price vs asking price in recent transactions. That will tell you how much to knock off.

It depends on circumstances.

Sometimes a buyer can get a bargain if the seller is desperate to sell.

I wouldn’t look at what someone had paid unless you were thinking of offering less.

I look at what something is worth today

Of course. It's not that much. By living in it they will have maintained it to a degree. It's unusual to do absolutely nothing. The vendors probably want to cover selling/ moving costs and not even make anything on it. And they are probably not expecting aaking price. In fact, it was probably on at the same in 2018.
My last house was on at 150 and we paid 135 in 2013. In 2017 we put it on at 220 and accepted 205. We had done a lot of work to it, but the market had changed too. We could not have afforded to move on had we accepted much lower.