Research by cashbackremortgages.co.uk, revealed that ‘sold’ house prices in the Wiltshire city, from the start of February to the end of April 2018, averaged £328,243 but fell by 8.8% to £299,207 between May and July.
The study also found that, across the whole of Wiltshire, average prices increased by 1.7% over both three-month periods.
Further analysis considered how house prices performed across the five neighbouring counties to Wiltshire; Dorset, Somerset, Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Hampshire, over the same periods. In four of these counties, average prices increased. Only Hampshire saw flat price growth.
The company also looked at the percentage of new properties listed by estate agents in Salisbury during the February-April and May-July periods. It found that almost a fifth (19%) more Salisbury homeowners put their properties on the market between the beginning of May and end of July, compared to the start of February and end of April.
Suchit Sethi, founder of cashbackremortgages.co.uk, comments: “Over the past seven months, Salisbury has been at the centre of an international scandal. The research we’ve carried out suggests the scandal may have fed its way through to the local property market, too.
Prices have fallen disproportionately in Salisbury and the events this year may well be what has driven that decline. It’s possible that the relentless media attention focused on the city has stirred up doubts in the minds of some prospective buyers and contributed to a drop-off in demand. Equally, the scandal may have caused a surge in people putting their homes on the market.
Over time things will almost certainly recalibrate to the norm but for now the Salisbury property appears anything but normal.”
