Browse Sections

• Education
• Special reports

Wealthiest areas still on the up

by Rob Dawson
13/ 8/2008

Top priced homes in Stockport’s wealthiest suburbs are still selling well - despite the collapse of the housing market, according to new figures released this week by the Land Registry Office.

The average price of properties sold in Stockport between April and June was down £3,193 compared to the average price of sales between January and March.

But the average sale price was up in the Heatons and Romiley, and average sales in Bramhall shot up by more than £25,000.

Matthew Clark, manager of Gascoigne Halman Estate Agents in Bramhall, said the new figures showed that Bramhall was benefiting from its collection of high end properties.

He said: "We are finding that the sales which are going through are all top end properties.  There is still interest in houses costing £500,0000 upwards because people with money can still afford to buy," said Mr Clark. "But we are not selling anything at the lower end at all, and first time buyers have completely dried up."

However, Mike Hanson, Chief Executive of the Vernon Building Society warned homeowners in Bramhall that the worst maybe yet to come.

"I think you can see the quality of Bramhall coming through there," he said. "But I would speculate that there is a time delay on these figures and that eventually areas like Bramhall will experience the same fall in prices."

Poynton and Disley saw the biggest drop, with sales averaging more than £30,000 less between April and June than between January and March.

The price of the average property sale was also down in Reddish, Brinnington and Edgeley.

House prices in Poynton have fallen faster than most other areas of Stockport, and earlier this year estate agent Reeds Rains was forced to close its Poynton branch.

However Matthew Evans, manager of the Poynton branch of Gascoigne Halman, said a rapid decrease in house prices was not necessarily a bad thing.

He said: "We are still selling houses, but nothing like as many as we were this time last year. We have actually started to do a lot more part exchanges and house swaps.  House prices in Poynton were high last year, which is probably why prices began to fall here before anywhere else."

He added: "Nobody seems to know where the housing market is going to level out. Prices can not keep falling and they will have to bottom out eventually. In fact, the quicker prices fall, the quicker they will bounce back and recover."

According to The Halifax, house prices fell by 1.7 percent across the country in July, bringing the average price down to £177,351 - the lowest level since June 2006.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders also reported that property repossessions rose 41 percent in the first half of this year.

For a table of the Land Registry property sales figures, in postcodes - see this week's Stockport Express