Zoopla.co.uk Blog

What’s in a street name…the secret to house prices perhaps?

We’re a little bit curious at Zoopla.co.uk and, because we list every UK home (all 27m of them – yes, yours will be found here), we’re able to carry out some unique property research looking at the whole of the market – not just focusing on properties for sale and to rent.

We wondered if there was any link between the name of the ‘street’ or ‘road’ or ‘avenue’ where you live and the value of your property.

Most people typically don’t pay much attention to the name of the road when deciding where to buy but our research shows that names can have an impact on both property values and the appearance of exclusivity. it turns out the average property on a ‘Hill’ is worth £185,000 more than the average property on a ‘Street‘.  So, paying a little more attention to the street name and not just the neighbours, may have an impact on the value of your home.

So, we calculated the average property values for each of the 858,000 (858,724 to be precise) residential locations in the UK and it turns out that the highest value properties in the UK are to be found on a ‘Hill’, where average house prices stand at £341,466; well above the national average.

Here are some of the key findings:

• Properties located on ‘Hills’ and ‘Lanes’ worth 50% more than national average

• ‘Streets’ and ‘Terraces’ have lowest average property values across the UK

• ‘Road’ most common residential suffix in UK whilst ‘Mews’ most exclusive

• Homes on ‘Church Lane’ worth more than double those on ‘Chapel Street’

Other names at the top of the list included ‘Lane’ where average home values are £328,378, ‘Mews’ coming in at £294,869, ‘Park’ at £283,069 and ‘Green’ where an average home will set you back £269,861.

At the other end of the spectrum, the average property on a ‘Street’ in the UK is valued today at £155,515, less than half that of one on a ‘Hill’ and well below the national average. ‘Terrace’ only fared marginally better than ‘Street’ in the rankings with an average value of £156,387. Also rounding out the bottom 5 were ‘Crescent’ with average property prices of £176,942, ‘Court’ coming in at £178,488 and ‘View’ where the average property costs £184,546 today.

The most common residential location name by far is ‘Road’ with 144,322 of them across the UK. The next most common being ‘Close’ with 98,778 of them, followed by ‘Street’ with 58,637 spread across the country. The research also revealed that there are three times as many ‘Roads’ as ‘Avenues’ (47,488) and three times as many ‘Avenues’ as ‘Terraces’ (16,532).

In terms of exclusivity, the least common location names within the top 20 were revealed as ‘Square’ (3,859) and ‘Mews’ (4,825). Owners of properties in a ‘Mews’ have reason to celebrate their home buying skills, having come in the top 3 both in terms of average property values and exclusivity.

When it comes to specific road names, 5 of the top 20 most common in the UK include either ‘Church’ or ‘Chapel’ in the name. But despite being amongst the most common, those with ‘Church’ in the name are also amongst the highest valued with the average property on the 1,547 ‘Church Lanes’ across the UK valued at an impressive £364,635 compared to the national average of £217,624. Other key words in road names that appear to have a positive impact on property values include ‘Mill’, ‘School’ and ‘Green’. Conversely properties on the 507 ‘Chapel Streets’ around the country are valued well below average at £159,433.

The most common road names in the UK are ‘High Street’ (2,431 of them) and ‘Station Road’ (1,929 of them) but despite the names being common, property values on both remain higher than the national average at £237,992 and £231,943 respectively, due to their typical proximity to the local services suggested in their names.

Most Common Location Names

Source: Zoopla.co.uk

Most Common Street Names

Source: Zoopla.co.uk

June 29, 2010 at 3:04 PM Zoopla Leave a comment

Zoopla.co.uk reaction to the 2010 Emergency Budget

Earlier today, George Osborne unveiled the biggest package of tax increases and spending cuts in a generation.

He called his Budget  ”tough but fair” and stated it was “unavoidable”.

Below are our reactions from our Commercial Director, Nick Leeming on the key points affecting the property industry – Capital Gains Tax, VAT, Stamp Duty review and holiday lets.

Capital gains tax up to 28%. The £10,100 per year CGT-free allowance remains.

Here’s an example:

This means that the typical second-home owner or buy-to-let investor looking to sell will now be faced with a capital gains tax bill of £31,802 as opposed to £20,444 before today’s announcement*. This assumes that they have owned the property for 10 years, over which period average house prices in the UK according to our figures have risen from £104,047 to £217,624, resulting in an average a gain of £113,577.

*We have not included the £10,100 allowance, as people may spread this across a range of assets

“The government’s decision to change the CGT rate is likely to cause disruption in certain sectors of the property market. Locations popular with second-home owners such as seaside towns are likely to suffer from a fall in demand as well as university towns where parents will now be far more reluctant to purchase property to house their children whilst studying. The impact will also likely be felt in the market for flats in London, which have been popular as an investment for families and those with long commutes. Almost 14% of the population resides in private rented accommodation. Higher taxation will only discourage buy-to-let buyers in a rentals market which is already suffering from a shortage of investment and may lead to upward pressure on rental levels. There are a lot of further, unanswered questions about the impact on this sector. The introduction of the higher CGT rate without indexation or taper relief incentives to reward long-term property investors is likely to be very damaging for the private rented sector and risks leading investors to abandon the property market, leading to a shortage in the supply of rental properties.

VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20% from 4 January 2011.

“The increase in VAT is also bad news for the property sector, especially for those involved in the home-moving process. The rise will mean homeowners and buyers will have less money to spend on improving and renovating their homes and businesses that rely on activity in the property sector, such as removal firms and tradesmen, will likely take a serious hit.”

Holiday lets tax reprieve

“The latest available government figures show there are around 272,000 second home owners in England. The return of the holiday lettings tax break is positive news as many of these second homes are used as furnished holiday lets, meaning they are available for others to enjoy and beneficial for the tourism industry. The appeal of this reform and the lower-than-expected increase in capital gains tax will lead to fewer investment properties being put on the market for sale than anticipated.”

Pledge to review the stamp duty land tax relief for first time buyers

“The government announced in the Budget that it will review the stamp duty relief introduced recently for first time buyers. Putting an end to stamp duty assistance must be avoided at all costs. Restrictively high mortgage rates and deposit requirements from lenders already make it virtually impossible for first time buyers to get onto the property ladder, without further obstacles in their way. A stamp duty saving of up to £2,500 may not appear a huge sum in relation to the overall cost of buying a house, but it is not an insignificant sum to first timers – and sufficient to cover mortgage payments for several months. The proportion of first time buyer purchases has now dropped to 35% of all transactions – the lowest share since 2007 – which should act as a clear warning for the government and mortgage lenders. More assistance must be given to first time buyers, who are absolutely critical to the continued recovery in the property market.”

Have your say below, we want to hear it.

The full Emergency Budget Report can be found here:

…and the section on Housing

As always, please feel free to share and use these figures; all we ask is that you credit the source as the Zoopla.co.uk and link to Zoopla.co.uk. Thank you.

June 22, 2010 at 3:23 PM Zoopla 2 comments