Property in North Devon

Trying2Save_3

Hello, we have seen a property in North Devon that we have fallen in love with and would like to purchase. We have just put our house on the market with a local agent at 1% but have not yet made an offer. Does anyone know what the property prices are doing in that area? We have looked at a lot of similar properties but have not been able to establish whether they are holding their own or dropping in price and we are therefore not sure what to offer.

We are also making a lifestyle change as we live in Reading, Berkshire. Any advice from anyone who has done this would also be appreciated.

Thank you.

Doozergirl

The Land Registry website has details of average property prices (based on what they actually sold for) for every three month period over the last few years. You can break down by County or Borough and choose the appropriate type of house to you (detached, semi, terrace etc). You can then compare house prices for the period Jan-Mar 2005 to Apr-Jun 2005. It's not immediate data but it's certainly the most reliable.

I would do a search for you but the site is down at the moment.

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/

Regarding change of lifestyle, I moved from London to Worcestershire 2 years ago. The quiet takes some adjusting to (seriously!), but the slower pace of life, the smiles you can share with a stranger in the street, the conversations with check-out staff and the fact that traffic actually moves is so uplifting. I didn't realise how much the rat-race really ate away at me until I was out of it! I miss the choice of London restaurants though...

Good luck with your move, I'm sure you won't regret it!

Trying2Save_3

Thanks for this, I'll have a look. I know they originally bought the property approx 11 years ago, but I would imagine they paid a lot less for it then. I know this sounds weird but I keep thinking how dark its going to be as the house is detached and in a country lane. I live in a semi in a Close.

Ember999

Trying2Save wrote:

Thanks for this, I'll have a look. I know they originally bought the property approx 11 years ago, but I would imagine they paid a lot less for it then. I know this sounds weird but I keep thinking how dark its going to be as the house is detached and in a country lane. I live in a semi in a Close.

I moved to the country from a village on the outskirts of a city on the 14th Sept. What struck me at first was the silence! I had never heard such silence at home before. It is bliss, no kids, no traffic, nothing! Only thing that will take some getting used to is having to travel at least 6 miles down dark, narrow country lanes just to find a pint of milk LOL

Life in the country is fun, go for it, you won't regret it once you get used to it!

Ian_W

Hi T2S,
If they bought 11 yrs ago it will probably be 2.5 to 3 times what they paid for it at a rough guess. If you can find out, may predate the land reg online data, you can use the price index calc on NW's website HERE to give you an idea of price rises in the SW over that period.

Waited to see if anyone came up with N. Devon market opinions but, as no-one has, I've been looking at prices in North Cornwall, around Bude, not too far away, for almost 12 months. The market there is certainly much slower, with probably twice as many props on Rightmove & fish4 than when I first started looking. There are also some asking price reductions on quite a few, not the majority but a significant number of props, that are sticking. So my impression is a slow market which might mean they're more likely to listen to lower offers than when prop was buzzing last year. Balanced against that, of course, is your potential vendors need for a certain amount to make whatever move they want to.

Where I'm looking is very much "second home" country and [I'm guessing here] with uncertainty about future prop prices it may be these buyers who are less frequent. So it will depend on whether the area in N. Devon you're looking has a lot of holiday homes or is somewhere like Torrington, Bideford etc where they are probably not as common.

Hope that helps & BoL with your sale.

Doozergirl

Trying2Save wrote:

I know this sounds weird but I keep thinking how dark its going to be as the house is detached and in a country lane.

You will be absolutely amazed at how bright the moon is on a clear night. It is bright enough to cast shadows and it makes my Cotswold stone patio glow bright white!