Where Property Price Falls Have Hit Home Hardest

Property investors are always looking for below market value UK property, but often don’t know where to look.With the help of some building society statistics and the Land Registry, here’s a top 10 – or should it be the bottom 10 – list of towns in the UK where property prices are in freefall:

Average price
Sept 2008    March 2009    Fall
Blackpool £167,140    £120,000    28.2%
Kilmarnock £156,500    £115,000    26.5%
Hertford £295,830    £217,498    26.5%
Worksop £168,492    £125,000    25.8%
Kendal £229,983    £177,475    22.9%
Kidderminster £180,883    £139,950    22.6%
Bridgend £161,150    £124,950    22.1%
Lewes £314,983    £245,500    22.1%
Telford £164,997    £129,950    21.2%
Windsor £379,975    £299,950    21.1%

Other towns suffering in the recession and teetering on the brink of falling in to the bottom 10 are Swindon, Middlesbrough, Hull and Birmingham.These four places are beginning to feel the pinch from the decline of the UK motor industry – for example, with the Honda shutdown at Swindon and Rover, Jaguar, Land Rover and now LDV Vans at Birmingham.The northeast, including Middlesbrough and Kingston-upon-Hull has long been favourite hunting grounds for property investors looking for discounted UK properties.

On average, the Nationwide Building Society house price index shows prices have dropped about 15.7% in the same period.The only place in the UK that hasn’t suffered any major house price fall is Aberdeen.
For investors looking for investment properties, Swindon is a relative new town with lots of homes being built in the past 20 years that should not require too much in the way of refurbishment.Bottom of the list Blackpool could be of interest to HMO investors (Homes in multiple occupation) as guest houses offer a low-cost of entry in to the market as they generally already have the required fire escape facilities and en suite bathrooms.

If you prefer a more hands-off package, Property Frontiers, an international property consultancy, runs an investment property service for landlords looking to put money in to UK residential lettings.
They will seek out high yield, below market value properties for individual investors, or you can select properties from their portfolio.Currently, Property Frontiers is offering new build properties at below market value in London and Liverpool .Both are developments exclusive to Property Frontiers with significant discount prices.