How much increase in price from 2019?

[LaLaFlottes]

Just after opinions really and will research too

Scenario is a house in a nice town in south east. It’s near the train station and commute to London is about 50 mins.

It’s on a “good” road on the edge of what’s perceived to be the most desirable chunk of the town.

However!! It’s on the wrong side of the road - meaning the garden backs on to the railway. There are a lot of houses on this side of the road, it’s just one of those things. Every house has a compromise and this is it for this house.

The house was built by the next door neighbours as they owned the land. It doesn’t look squashed in, it’s fine, 3 bed detached, plenty of parking and garden.

They sold it in 2017 for £500k according to zoopla. Then the current owners bought it in 2019 for £490k. It’s now on the market for £625k. Estate agents say they may be open to lower offers.

Although the price of £625k isn’t that unrealistic for a detached house in this area, given the flaw re the railway, it seems too much of a jump for me?

What do you think? Just interested in opinions

I would look at houses nearby for comparison. We are in the southwest, but we had an offer accepted for a property in early 2020 at £660k (guide price £675k). Sellers had purchased it in 2018 for £575k, made absolutely no upgrades except to some of the outside space and putting in new septic tank. They had to pull out due to illness before exchange. Re-marketed it in July 2021 for offers over £850k and it was under offer in a week (not to us, we’d moved on since). Roughly £300k increase in 3 years! It’s certainly possible but depends on the local market.

My friend has a house backing on to railway. It makes minimal difference in price to the houses on the other side - hers is also south facing as opposed to north. As for jump - how have all the other houses in the neighbourhood performed?

Thank you - I will take a look at other houses and see how they have performed too 😊

The opposite side of the road has much larger houses on really big plots so it’s hard to compare those but I’ll check the ones on the same side, even if they are totally different houses I guess it’s how they’ve performed that’s the important part isn’t it?

If it has a very long garden I wouldn't expect the train line to be much of an issue, it's it's right on top of the house then I'd expect a bit of a discount compared to those over the road especially if they are if a similar size.

I don't think you can really compare pre-pandemic values to post-pandemic values as prices have shifted incredibly. I sold the house I'd been in earlier this year for 23% more than it was bought for in summer 2017. While the house was lovely, the area was awful, plus the house was on a main road! In the area I'm trying to buy in now (I have an offer going through the legal motions), I could have had "my house" for £100k less, or afforded an extra bedroom 3 years ago, compared to what my budget will buy now.

As others have said, I'd look at comparable similar recent sales on both sides of the toad, and gauge where it should be reasonably pitched from there.

*if it's right on top of the house

*both sides of the road

How much work have the current owners done?

Can I ask why you think having the railway at the bottom of the garden is a flaw? We live close to the railway and it's no problem. House prices have risen ridiculously since 2019 where we are in SW London. A friend just sold their house for £875k, when their neighbours got £700k for their identical house in 2019.

FWIW we had ours valued the other day and its suggested market price is 25% higher than we paid in 2018. And an almost identical house sold further down the street at the suggested list price so it's not unreasonable for us to speculate ours would do the same.

We live in a cheap area though so it's gonefrom cheap to slightly less cheap 😀

There’s so little properties coming on right now (in my bit of the southeast) and people are getting very optimistic wrt values. The banks may think otherwise, regardless of how quickly it goes under offer. So the market is a bit weird at the mo imo.

Having said that I don’t think those gains are out of line- sounds like the first buyer got cold feet and had to move.

I believe I've found the house in question (happy to confirm via PM if you like). I live locally and I myself have recently moved, so very familiar with the property market in the area - and in my opinion, it's overpriced. It's not just the railway (the railway side of the road isn't considered part of the "BT", by the way) - it's the square meterage compared to the price too.

@LittleRedYoshi your reference to the BT confirms you have identified the house in question!

Thank you for your thoughts - that’s interesting about the square metres to price too. I do think it’s a big jump in price for this particular house and as you know the road, comparing is tricky isn’t it!

We are looking for something close to the station which is why this is on our radar but it’s probably not quite right really.

I hope your move went smoothly!

@Jasmine11 maybe flaw is the wrong word, but the railway is right at the bottom of the garden - so it’s definitely a weakness for the property, that may or may not cause problems with noise

Yes, it is tricky - and it doesn't help that there doesn't seem to be much available at the moment. Maybe things will pick up in the new year (if you can wait that long). Best of luck!