Windsor & Maidenhead

[chiefduffer]

I own a house in Windsor not too far from the town centre- 3 bed terraced. Bought at 220K in 2001. Subsequently did it up and converted the loft. Got overseas assignment in May 2004 so I tried selling it then. Put it on the market at 330K. Didn't sell at asking price (offer at 320K) so I decided to rent. Have had good tenants- getting 1150 PCM- covers the mortgage and then some. So I've had 2 years of renting the house, slowly paying off the mortgage. Thing is in the past 2 years prices seem to be rather static. Might have moved up to 350K but a lot less than in previous years.

Looking from abroad, it seems like the house market has almost maxed out but not really in danger of crashing just yet. Interest rates remain low, economy is stable etc. etc. At the moment I'm thinking of hanging on to the house for another year and then selling in Spring 07. If I were a serious investor I might have considered selling a couple of years ago and buying in an area with more growth potential but I didn't.

With prices in London continuing to rise at higher rates than the rest of the country I figure in next 12 months Windsor will benefit from the overspill of those priced out of the London market. IMO If a crash happens I think it will be the result of a global economic trough (starting with crash in US property market) rather than a local financial crisis. I reckon we're still a year off from this however.

Any Windsor locals have an opinion on this?

[GonnaBeMessy]

I live just down the road from you in Maidenhead, however watch both markets fairly closely. I would agree with your assessment that prices are fairly stable in the Royal borough - there are obviously some properties in desirable locations with regard to schools etc that continue to be snapped up quickly at a premium. But I have to say the type of property that you own, seems to be sticking on the market for much longer than they used too. I believe prices are pretty stagnant late 2004 until now. Now whether you decide to sell now or wait until spring 2007 that is the 64 thousand dollar question, depends on your point of view. Are you happy to cash in for 350K or whatever it may be worth now, or do you believe the market will be stronger/weaker spring 07. Interest rates will obviously be one of the keys. As far as London overspill is concerned I can't agree with that. I think you'll find that planet Windsor is no less cheaper than London, and not a location for outpriced Londoners.

[chiefduffer]

I live just down the road from you in Maidenhead, however watch both markets fairly closely. I would agree with your assessment that prices are fairly stable in the Royal borough - there are obviously some properties in desirable locations with regard to schools etc that continue to be snapped up quickly at a premium. But I have to say the type of property that you own, seems to be sticking on the market for much longer than they used too. I believe prices are pretty stagnant late 2004 until now. Now whether you decide to sell now or wait until spring 2007 that is the 64 thousand dollar question, depends on your point of view. Are you happy to cash in for 350K or whatever it may be worth now, or do you believe the market will be stronger/weaker spring 07. Interest rates will obviously be one of the keys. As far as London overspill is concerned I can't agree with that. I think you'll find that planet Windsor is no less cheaper than London, and not a location for outpriced Londoners.

Thanks for your feedback. Interesting comment about the pricing vs London- it challenged me to do a little research of my own. I had a look at average price of terraced properties in the closest three London postcode districts on upmystreet.com sold this year (Hanwell & Ealing- W7, W13, W5). Here is what I found.

Average price of Terraced, freehold property:

Windsor SL4 £320,538

Hanwell W7 £308,230

Ealing W13 £327,692

Ealing W5 £353,559

It looks like prices in Windsor are fairly consistent with outer London then. Given that prices in Ealing rose by a modest 2.6% in the past year- compared with 1.1% for the Royal Borough, I would argue that there is still growth potential. Even more interesting are the growth numbers for some of the neighbouring London districts:

Hammersmith & Fulham 13.5%

Richmond 8.9%

Given this, I think I'm going to risk it a little longer. Have a look at this link on the BBC if you don't believe me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_d...html/houses.stm

[enworb]

To the first 2 posters, hello. I live in the not so royal town of Slough. Like you I have followed the property market for some time, since I bought my first place in Herschel Village in the town centre.

That was in 2001 when Windsor prices were almost twice as much as Slough's ,with Maidenhead just behind Windsor. The gap has definately closed and I believe it's because there is not enough commerce in Windsor and Maidenhead to warrant the price difference to Slough.

And another thing that annoys me is that professional couples seem to want to buy 2 bed apartments when thye could have a 3 bed terrace house for not much more.

In my opinion, your house is easily worth the asking price. The apartments on the Windsor relief road R/A are selling at £300k. On top of the mortgage will be a pricey ground rent and maintenace fee. Neither of which you need to worry about with a house.

I'm going off topic slightly but to cut a long story short, house prices in Windsor and Maidenhead will probably continue to rise, because of the Schools mainly. But I still see parts of Slough, particularly East Slough (Castleview) closing the gap over the next couple of years.

Regardless, if we have all bought in this part of the SE, we are lucky enough to live in an area an awful lot of other people wouldn't mind living in.