The centre of Bolton is the worst place to have bought a property in England and Wales since 2000, on the basis of property price movements, according to eMoov.

The town centre is the only location of 7,207 in England and Wales that has seen a decrease in the average property value over this time period.

At the start of the new millennium, the average house price in the centre of Bolton was £77,202, just under £8,000 less than the UK average.

However, despite peaking at £105,608 in 2008, the current average house price in the area has dropped by 9% from the start of 2000 to just £70,621. This is massively lower than the UK average of £221,254.

The high number of buy-to-let properties in Bolton is a major cause of the poorly performing property market, with landlords driving down prices by purchasing multiple properties at a time.

However, the low demand for property in Bolton is also a factor. eMoov found that demand in Bolton is at just 28%, -13% less than the national average.

On the bright side

It’s not all bad news for those who have bought in the Greater Manchester town. Of the 43 areas in the local authority of Bolton, the remaining 42 have all seen an increase in values over the last 16 years, 16 of which have actually enjoyed a higher increase than the average across England and Wales (+172%).

Founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, Russell Quirk, said: “This research will certainly come as bad news for homeowners in the centre of Bolton. Generally getting on the ladder is the safest investment one can make in England and Wales and it would seem that anywhere other than this particular area of Bolton, would have at least seen some sort of return on that investment.

“It doesn’t seem like things will be improving anytime soon with low demand for property across Bolton as a whole likely to cool the local market even further.”