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First-time Buyer

Homeowners moving half as often as pre-Credit Crisis

Cherry Reynard
Written By:
Cherry Reynard
Posted:
Updated:
28/03/2018

High house prices and stricter mortgage rules are seeing homeowners move half as often as they did before the credit crisis, according to statistics gathered by the BBC

The research, undertaken for the BBC by Savills show that people used to move house on average 3.6x after buying their first property; today, it is 1.8x. This is prompting a boom of ‘improving’ over ‘moving’ to get extra space.

Areas where people move most including Wandsworth, Basingstoke and Deane, Norwich, Rushmoor, Lambeth, Corby, Swindon, Aylesbury Vale, South Norfolk and Bracknell Forest, while they move least in Pembrokeshire, Harrow, Ceredigion, Blaenau Gwent, Brent, Wolverhampton, Isle of Anglesey, Sefton, Newham and Redbridge.

Savills identified two key areas where market movement was slow – where house prices were very high and the next level of the housing market was out of reach; and where house prices were very low and buyers had made little profit. In the London Borough of Harrow houses typically sell once every 19 years. In Aylesbury Vale, this drops to every 10 years.

A final issue was the lack of properties available for downsizing. That means many older homeowners are staying put when they would otherwise have moved to a smaller home.