Gloucester Property Market Year End Report 2024
Posted on 3rd January 2025 at 15:56
Average house prices across the UK end the year 1.4% above December 2023, however in Gloucester they are 3.3% up on the same time last year. Rightmove are predicting that new seller asking prices will rise by 4% next year as forecast mortgage rate drops are set to further improve affordability and stimulate market activity. The average asking price of a Gloucester home is now £290,013. Average prices in Gloucestershire are £392,613.
As the year ends activity remains substantially stronger than the same period a year ago, with the number of sales being agreed up by 22%, and new buyer demand up by 13% which suggests a busy start to 2025 especially with the looming change to stamp duty thresholds. Currently across the UK there are almost 283,000 properties working their way from sale agreed to completion and these carry a combined value in excess of £104bn.
In the South-West the average time taken to agree a sale on a home is currently 71 days with Gloucester performing far better than average at 49 days. This is 4 days quicker than in 2023 and places Gloucester equal 3rd in the fastest selling of the UK’s largest 50 cities.
The stock of homes currently available is 10% higher than a year ago and there are plenty of homes that have been on the market for a considerable amount of time. Across Gloucester a total of 537 properties (at the time of writing) have been on the market for 8 weeks or more with 410 of those having been for sale for over 12 weeks. If you are one of these people trying to sell then consider what has happened over the past few months and ask yourself what your estate agent has been doing and saying to try and get you sold. Certainly some agents have an extraordinary number of properties that remain unsold for a considerable amount of time and this may be poor marketing or misleading advice around price.
Taking the above into consideration a number of sellers will need to make reductions to their asking prices if they are to achieve a sale and put themselves in the best position possible to secure their onward purchase once they see the home of their dreams. Despite the above numbers only 98 properties were reduced in price in December. The start of the year tends to see a significant number of new buyers come to the market and it will be interesting to see what happens to those properties that have been around for a while.
While there are positive signs for the 2025 market, and meaningful mortgage rate falls would be a big boost to consumer confidence and pockets, there is still caution over how next year may play out. There is uncertainty over how rising stamp duty may affect activity later in 2025, as well as the level of wage growth.
As always if you are considering moving home in 2025 then correct planning is vital and it is important to seek the right advice early on.
Have you had your property valued by three different estate agents?
Have you spoken to an independent financial advisor to check what you can afford and what you can do to improve your approval chances?
And have you engaged with the services of a solicitor to make sure your property is truly sale ready?
You may be unsure on some of the above and we are happy to help using over 40 combined years as estate agents so if you have any questions or require any advice or guidance please feel free to call us on 01452 260993, message or email enquiries@rbwalters.co.uk.
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
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