“How much would it cost to buy all the properties in Locks Heath?”

This fascinating question was posed by the 11-year-old son of one of my Locks Heath Landlords when they both popped into my offices before the Christmas break (doesn’t that seem forever ago now!).  I thought to myself, that over the Christmas break, I would sit down and calculate what the total value of all the properties in Locks Heath are worth… and just for fun, work out how much they have gone up in value since his son was born back in the autumn of 2005.

In the last 11 years, since the autumn of 2005, the total value of Locks Heath property has increased by 50% or £2.15 billion to a total of £6.45 billion.  Interesting, when you consider the FTSE100 has only risen by 30.78% and inflation (i.e. the UK Retail Price Index) rose by 37% during the same 11 years.

When I delved deeper into the numbers, the average price currently being paid by Locks Heath households stands at £337.839.… but you know me, I wasn’t going to stop there, so I split the property market down into individual property types in Locks Heath; the average numbers come out like this:

It got even more fascinating when I multiplied the total number of each type of property by the average value.  As detached houses are so expensive, when you compare them with the much cheaper terraced/town houses and apartments, you can quite clearly see how valuable detached properties are in terms of total pound note value, when compared to the value of the terraced/town houses and apartments.

So, what does this all mean for Locks Heath?  Well as we enter the uncharted waters of 2017 and beyond, even though property values are already declining in certain parts of the previously over cooked Central London property market, the outlook in Locks Heath remains relatively good as over the last five years, the local property market was a lot more sensible than central London’s.

Locks Heath house values will remain resilient for several reasons.  Firstly, demand for rental property remains strong with continued immigration and population growth.  Secondly, with 0.25% interest rates, borrowing has never been so cheap and finally the simple lack of new house building in Locks Heath not keeping up with current demand, let alone eating into years and years of under investment means only one thing – yes it might be a bumpy ride over the next 12 to 24 months but, in the medium term, property ownership and property investment in Locks Heath has always, and will always, ride out the storm.

In the coming weeks, I will look in greater detail at my thoughts for the 2017 Locks Heath Property Market. As always, all my articles can be found at the The Locks Heath Property Blog