As Savills Wimborne office marks its 75th anniversary in the town, the firm has looked at how the local property market has performed over the years.
Research from Savills using Land Registry as far back as possible, shows mainstream house prices throughout Dorset have increased by 339% in the last 24 years, with the last three years alone seeing an 18% increase.
In the 12 months to July this year, the average house price for the county of Dorset was £384,640, outperforming the wider South West region, which saw an average sale price of £343,900. By contrast, the average sale price for the county of Dorset in the 12 months to July 1998 was £87,500.
One of the parts of the county which has seen the greatest increase in house prices* is Bradpole, near Bridport, which has an average house price of £427,200 (to end of July 2022). Here, there has been an increase of 364% since 1999, when the average sale price was £92,098. The parish of Lychett Minster and Upton was not far behind, with an increase of 346% over the same period, from £80,993 in 1999 to £360,994 this year.
In the prime housing market (broadly the top 5-10% by value), the wider south region has recorded price growth of 1181% since 1979, according to the firm’s prime regional index. Over the last two years, there has been 12% growth in prime house prices in the Wimborne area.
Ashley Rawlings of Savills Wimborne says: “Dorset has certainly attracted many buyers as a result of the pandemic and the desire for more space and proximity to the countryside. But what this latest research underlines is the area’s enduring appeal; the popularity of Wimborne and the wider Dorset area is that it offers a fantastic lifestyle, particularly for families with a wealth of excellent schooling options as well as beautiful rolling countryside and of course the Jurassic coastline.
“While the area has long been desirable, no one could have predicted the exceptional demand for property over the last few years, or indeed that this would continue for so long after the last lockdown. However it was inevitable that the incredible level of interest in moving house and the associated price growth would need to return to a less frenetic pace in the long term and we are starting to see market conditions changing.”
Looking ahead, over the next 12 months or so, Savills researchers anticipate downward pressure on prime values. This is expected to be less pronounced than in the mainstream markets, forecasted at -5 per cent on average in the south of the country. Taking a longer term view, Savills researchers are forecasting a return to positive growth as early as 2024, with prices over the five year period to 2027 to see net increases of up to +11.6 per cent – an outperformance of the UK average.
Rawlings adds: “It’s also important to bear in mind that this follows a period of unprecedented price growth of +16.4% on average across the wider south between March 2020 and September 2022.
“We are already starting to see expectations more aligned than they have been for the last couple of years, with sellers accepting that market conditions are changing. There is still strong demand for the right property; Dorset remains a hugely popular part of the world and while 2023 activity won’t be as high – or frenzied – as they have been, we are still seeing the effect of a significant stock shortage. We can therefore expect good homes in good locations to continue to see strong demand and, if priced correctly, will sell well. This is particularly true for best-in-class properties.”