How much have house prices gone up since 2021?

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I’ve found a beautiful house online; they are marketing it for OIEO £800k. From what I can see, all they’ve done since moving in during 2021 is redecorated (paint), changed flooring to herringbone, swapped the kitchen worktops from wood to Quartz, and added an outdoor kitchen (which isn’t included in the sale anyway). They paid £630k for the house in 2021.

As I said, it’s a really gorgeous home, but am I wrong for thinking they are batshit wanting a 33% increase over what they paid?! Or am I out of touch? I was under the impression that prices had gone up max 15% in the last 5 years, at a push.

It might depend on area but I think 2021 was a peak in prices as lots of people moved after lockdown - moved to bigger properties to work from home, have outdoor space, less office based work so moved further out etc. people are now trying to compensate for having paid over the odds for somewhere a few years ago.

"From what I can see..."

OP that is irrelevant. You don't know whats been spent or needed doing. And even if you did so what? That's where it is valued now and if it is a fair price then somebody will buy it.

Just perhaps they have re-roofed. Perhaps a new heating system. Renovation and maintenance is about the fabric of the property, not cosmetic. You are entirely basing your judgement on decor which is misguided and foolish.

I really don't understand this obsession with previous sales price I see so frequently on MN.

Well ours has gone up around 20-25% since we bought it in 2020, so that doesn't sound crazy. They may also have had more done to it than you can tell.

Around here prices have dropped slightly and are now pretty much at 2021 levels.

They may have got a great deal on the price in 2021 when they bought!

Totally depends on area. It could have gone up 50% or dropped in value.

Depends on area, but i’m relocating to the wirral and house prices around there, and Chester where my brother lives have risen a lot in the last few years. Sure my brother told me 40% but not sure what time frame. He is kicking himself as he was looking for houses and ended up buying a flat, which hasn’t gained in value, but houses are now out of reach. Have a look on rightmove at what’s for sale and price history as very much area dependant.

Totally irrelevant what they paid.
It is what the market value is now and (more importantly), what any buyer is happy to spend to secure the property.

They may have got a great deals at the time, they may have done far more than you think.
Is it WORTH the asking price in the current market?

Just to add.
We sold a property in 2022 and prices were still very much on the up, it was a frantic bidding war for desirable properties (which this one was).
Don't think the market cooled (here at least) for another year or so.

Previous sale prices are irrelevant. Do you want to buy it and how much are you prepared to pay are the questions you should ask yourself.

Too many unknowns here to judge. You have no way of knowing whether the price paid in 2021 was reasonable. Perhaps they overpaid, or maybe it was an absolute bargain. You also have no way of knowing what condition it was in 5 years ago, photos are one thing but it doesn’t tell you if they’ve upgraded the electrics, heating, installed a damp proof course, installation etc.

Try to focus on whether it’s worth its current value. Not how much the current owners stand to profit. Have a look at similar houses in the same area is the price point the same?

What are other comparative houses selling for?

Worth adding the boring bit about inflation. The Pound has lost about 24% of it's value since 2021, everything costs more because the Pound is worth so much less. Assuming a house has lost no value, a £600,000 house would be £750,000 today.

The two resources to check would be houseprices.io to see what the value of the home would be if increased in line with RPI and what neighbouring homes have done, and area360 area profile which will provide the 10 year trends for house prices in that particular location. See what quartile the home fitted in 2021 and where that translates to now.

What tjeu paid is irrelevant although uk has been brainwashed into "making a profit"

Round here it would be close to flat maybe +100 assuming they paid a fair price.

It hasn't gone up 33%.

All good points. This house was built in 2008 so fairly new, I don’t think it’s likely they’ve upgraded electrics, heating etc. I can see from previous Rightmove photos what the house looked like last time it was sold and those things I’ve stated are the only obvious changes. I actually got the history wrong, I missed that it had been sold again since 2021. So it sold in 2021 for £630k, then current buyers paid £750k in 2023. I don’t want it, it’s only got 3 parking spaces which isn’t enough for us. But it’s otherwise lovely and so I was just musing about the steep price increase over 5 years!

Depends very much on area. Round us prices peaked in 2021/2022 and have now dropped back down again. Not as low are 2018/2019 but anyone who bought in the 2021/2022 rush are finding if they want to sell they are "making a loss" or if they want what they paid for it houses are languishing on RM for months and months if not years.

Our area really benefitted from the post COVID "escape to the country and work from home" but reality is it's a deprived area with all the problems of an abandoned industrial town. There are limited local jobs that are not council or nhs or shop/ bar/ cafe work. The train connection that was used to sell the houses at peak price is unreliable and not practical for commuting more than a few times a month and is an absolute ball ache for more than 2 times a week. The once great market is completely decimated and what was a lovely high street with independents is now charity shops, pound shops, vape shops, money laundering fronts, hairdressers and nail bars.

Depending on the area. In our area w/good commute to London freehold+garden+highly desirable secondary school catchment - went 10-15% up even in comparison to peak prices, everything else sells at around 2019-2022 prices, or even lower in case of flats w/high service charge.
Professional families around here prefer to invest into a property in a good school catchment rather then send 2-3 kids private.

Perhaps not everywhere else...not everyone wants, or needs, a short commute to London so there are other areas where prices have risen.

I agree with other posters that it really depends on the area. We’re in Manchester in the suburbs with good commuter links and prices have kept climbing since 2021and show no sign of stopping. Decent houses round here still go quickly, often with a best and final offers bidding war.

What I mean is around here, if a property is not freehold+garden+ in good school catchment, unlikely it will sell for more then it would've sold 5 years ago. So it varies even within one postcode.
I've read that in the areas previously popular with 2nd homeowners or during covid the prices have fallen up to 20%.

BTL investers also see better return on cheaper properties and gave up on SE England.

It seems logical to me that prices are lower or static when there are fewer buyers competing than there were. So how popular is the area, OP?

Back in those days of 2021 era there was very cheap credit and a mad rush to get out of Covid restriction living conditions into having more physical space and greener living etc. There was the (very economically sensible) notion that people in appropriate jobs for WFH, could be trusted to WFH. That gave people a chance to buy further away from cities and to revive local economies outside of big cities. Exactly what the country needs. But it’s been reversed because big companies like Pret and the big companies that rent out central London office space weren’t doing so well. Tough luck for the workers.

Basically currently, because mortgage interest rates have shot up so much to try to control inflation since 2021to respond to global events, and cope with domestic policy choices, that means loads of potential home buyers have been forced to completely give up on the dream of buying because at today’s interest rates; they can’t afford to borrow and repay.

Theres a theory that higher wages will balance this out in time, so buyers willl come back in to the market, but that willl be distributed unevenly across different sectors and different parts of the country. So it’s a very uncertain picture.

In my area houses are definitely down on 2021, which was the peak. A lot are sitting unsold for months and months. It IS relevant what they sold for in 2021 as it helps to work out whether the price being advertised is in the right ballpark or not. No point paying close to an inflated asking price and then the mortgage valuation comes in much lower.

And then it gets compounded because they think their house is fairly priced compared to others in the immediate area that are on the market - no those aren’t selling either you plonker!

Or we get “they won’t accept a below market price offer because they’ve only just reduced the price”. Well clearly if no one was offering 770 when it was on at 790 then no one is going to offer them 770 just because now it’s on at 770. So just sell me the bloody house for 750 and let’s all skip happily into the sunset….

We bought a house in 2014 for £405K. In 2021/2 the Zoopla estimate was £625K. We sold in 2024 for much less than that. Some of the houses nearby there are on the market for less than they were bought for 12 years ago.

Some have been on the market for months and even years. It doesn’t matter what you think the value should be. The value is what someone will pay.