I keep an eye on Bridgend even though I haven't lived there for a while now. Significantly down over last 6 months - 3 beds around 15% off, and in 'nice' areas as well. I wonder whether the recent, ahem, adverse media coverage has made people less inclined to settle there?

I also keep an eye of Bridgend district prices having lived there and Porthcawl a number of years ago and what I am seeing is the complete opposite to yourself.
In decent or half decent areas of Bridgend prices for a typical 3 bed semi are still above £180k and to me that seems to be a high price considering 8 years ago they were in the mid £90k bracket.

Yes there is lots of different housing in Bridgend and places like Pencoed seem to be easing, but anything decent and your looking a minimum of £170k and 1 year into the credit crunch (correction) and that to me still seems alot of money.
Detached property of good size and location are still selling for £250k plus (I mean sold sign up and new vehicles on the drive and a quick check on house price websites).

One thing about Bridgend, it does have a good number of job opportunities, at least it did last time i was there.


Also come out 27th out of over 270 regions for the happiest place in Britain despite recent media reporting

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Whatever did happen to margamboy? you two would have got on like peas in a pod

FWIW, I'll always be a Wildmill boyo at heart Can't say I take much notice of house prices when I'm down there (was there this bank hol). Prices still seem so far removed from the sort of people I knew whilst I was at school.

EDIT: And another thing, grim Manchester was named 2nd happiest place in the UK I'd take that survey with a large dose of salt.

I can empathise with you (not WMill but somewhere else for me).

Johnnybegood is wrong I'm afraid - Bridgend is plummeting. Some houses are on for less than 2004 prices now and 3 bed detached in Pen-y-fai for £145K (which means you'd pay £130K) is about 2003 prices. And as for job opportunities, manufacturing in Bridgend has been decimated over the last 5 years. Ford is now the only decent dependable employer left, and how long will that last given the sh1t we are about to see?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-180...n=1&tr_t=bu

I am only speaking of what I have seen, that Pen y fai property has been on a while and seem fairly well priced so maybe there is more than meets the eye there, for one it is vacant possession and looks quite rough inside.
Like I said some areas are seeing falls i.e Pencoed but overall the prices are holding quite firm, you say prices are back to 2004 levels, since 2005 I would say that prices have not risen by a great amount in Bridgend, 10% at most.

This months LR release shows Bridgend @ 4.1% annual growth up 1.4% for the month, yes this data does lag by approx 3 months but it was one of the very few regions in Wales to show positive growth and one of the highest annual growth.

Show me a 3 bed semi in a nice area for under £150k, (Nice area Litchard higher , Laleston , Coity etc) and we are 1 year into the quickest slowdown, highest level of debt and pulling of credit in decades.

It wouldn't surprise me. House prices have always depended on arange of irrational factors.

Does that mean you went to Gowerton?

Er, no, not sure what you mean?

Wildmill in Bridgend is a 60s (?) council estate, 1000+ homes - 20 miles or so from Swansea.
Houses look like this:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-191...=6&tr_t=buy

EDIT: Forgot to say, When I was a lad (15yrs ago) Brackla was an aspirational place to live - seems like thats turned into a shithole. Is there still anywhere worth living on that side?

Sorry ~ mistook the location for somewhere else!

Did you really live in Wildmill? If so what is it really like there.
I have mixed reports and having driven through on a number of occasions there are far worse places I have come across, I mean it looks pretty decent compared to estates in Swansea.
There is no doubt an element there but I never seen anything it whilst travelling through, always seems fairly quiet, I remember doing my driving test in Swansea and having to travel through Bonymaen and Clase, the number of times the instructor had to take over to avoid us being hit with car tyres being rolled down the hill towards us.

There does seem to be 2 parts to Wildmill, our family doctor used to live there, not on the council estate but the other side.

Yes, really. My parents still live there in the house they right-to-bought in the 80s and my Nana lives close by, having moved there a few years ago.

Certainly the reputation of Wildmill when I lived there (early 80s to late 90s) was far worse than the reality of living there. Bridgend was always a bit of a dump but the people were pretty good. A bad area in Bridgend wouldnn't compare to a bad area in Swansea/Cardiff. Never had any trouble whilst I was growing up. Usually wandered back from town drunk on the weekend without incident. Lots of good, honest, working people who vastly out-numbered the bad ones. Although to my mind we lived in one of the nicer of the 4 unequal parts but I'm probably biased. Houses though are externally so ugly you wouldn't believe it

Over the past 10 years, I believe it has got worse but so has Bridgend in general. Seems to be more anti-social stuff going on but nothing serious around my parents. I'm not sure whats happened to the town but Dopamine has previously said there's been an influx of VCs lowering the tone of the whole town. Not being there much I'm not in a position to comment.

There is a 'private' section at the back of Wildmill called "The Saints" (all the roads are St Christopher this and St Nicholas that). Nice bungalows and houses, but always expensive at that end - Doctors, teachers, retired people etc. We used to wlak the dog through there, heading toward Glanrhyd Hospital. Compare this to the first link I posted - price and design.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-151...=1&tr_t=buy

This one literally faces the council houses but has a St Francis Road address not a Tair Felin one

And today I'm living in an area of Manchester within walking distance of the centre with a very dodgy reputation but isn't actually that bad... doh.

These can't be helping Bridgend right now:

L'Oreal Job losses

and now Ford are feeling the pinch locally http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7696219.stm

3rd biggest factory in Wales I didn't know that.

It's sad, but Bridgend is very vulnerable. It got away lightly in the last recession, as that heavily hit the service sector in the SE of England. Hopefully cheaper exports will help the manufacturers there, but my sense is that this recession will hit everyone, everywhere, badly.

Houses really tanking there as well now (more than at the time of my first post) - a few 20%+ reductions on propertysnake.

Quite right, I have seen price reductions recently.
A quick read through the local property paper though and any half decent is still £150k plus.

There is so much crap at under £150k, there are lots of older property in Bridgend that interior deco on most the decent property under £150k is awful.
I do offer you the opportunity to have a look on Rightmove and find a decent property under £150k in a nice location that would house a family.

Shoeboxes in Brackla are still fetching £120k plus.

Here in Cowbridge prices on average have fallen 5%, i like to think of the place as being more immune than other places, however job losses will filter through one way or another.
During the last recession of the 90s Cowbridge faired quite well as repossessions were kept to a minimum as many people in the town seemed to avoid the job cuts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7738793.stm



I'm guessing this is the plant the train goes past between Bridgend and Cardiff ???

They eat people's heads in Cardiff.

Torchwood has got a lot to answer for

It was either High Hopes or Satellite City on BBC2W in which one of the characters used to say "they eat people's heads in Cardiff" occasionally.
Think it was probably Satellite City.

Satellite city was class mind

Yeah, it was great.

I didn't realise Cardiffians added "mind" to the end of sentences like we do in Swansea.