The UK’s scariest house price drops since last Halloween

The latest property market analysis by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, reveals which parts of the UK have experienced the scariest house price drops since last Halloween.

Since the start of the pandemic, or at least since the government’s introduction of the SDLT holiday in reaction to the pandemic, the UK housing market’s extraordinary price growth has been widely reported. But despite these red hot market conditions, no less than 10 areas of the market have actually seen house prices fall since last October.

Nowhere is this more true than in Lambeth, South London, where, since last Halloween, the average house price has dropped by -9.4%, from £541,605 in October 2020 to £490,790 today; a decline of almost £51,000.

Lambeth isn’t the only area of the capital to see a frightening decline in the value of bricks and mortar. In the City of London, prices have dropped by almost -£67,500, from £824,402 to £756,917, an annual decline of -8.2%.

Homeowners have also had a scare outside of the capital.

House prices in Reigate & Banstead have fallen -2.7% since last Halloween, with Cotswold (-2.4%) and North Devon (-1.6%) also amongst the biggest declines.

Other areas to have seen a decline include Brent, London (-1.4%), Oxford (-1.1%), Harrow, London (-1.1%), Lewisham, London(-0.8%) and Epping Forest, London (-0.7%).

Despite London’s dominance on this list, not all of the capital has experienced a deathly price drop since last Halloween.

In fact, another one of London’s boroughs has seen the UK’s biggest price growth during the same period of time. In Hammersmith & Fulham, the average house price now sits at £881,616 having increased by almost 22% since October 2020.

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented:

“The general narrative of the last year or so has been focussed around explosive market growth across the UK while the London market has largely struggled to keep pace. While this is certainly true to an extent, these Halloween house price drops demonstrate just how granular the UK property market is when it comes to the performance of individual markets.

While London features heavily amongst the 10 areas to have seen values decline since last October, it also accounts for the area to have enjoyed by far the largest rate of property price appreciation.

“Halloween often marks the start of a pre-Christmas winter rush on the housing market, so even if you live in one of the places where prices have dropped the most, the coming months still provide a good time to put your house on the market and, as demand rises, good prices can still be achieved.”