"There’s always fierce competition amongst the home nations, but unfortunately, the Welsh housing market has fared about the same as the Welsh rugby team over the last year, with just five areas seeing positive growth on an annual basis"
- Ruth Beeton - Home Sale Pack
New research by information platform, Home Sale Pack, analysed the latest UK House Price Index (Dec 2023) to see how the Welsh nation has performed against the rest of the home nations when it comes to house price appreciation over the last year.
The data was then filtered by area to see which pockets of the Welsh property market are seeing the strongest levels of house price growth, before also looking at the average sold prices across Welsh-related road names found within Wales and the premiums they command versus the national average.
According to the analysis, the average UK house price in December 2023 stood at £284,691, an annual drop of -1.4%. However, the average house price across Wales has fallen by -2.5% over the last year, with England the only other home nation to have seen a year-on-year decline at -2.1%.
Despite this drop, the average Welsh house price of £213,816 is the second highest among the four home nations, beaten only by England’s average of £302,164.
Just five Welsh areas see positive growth year-on-year
When breaking the Welsh market down by area the picture doesn’t get much better, with just five of the 22 Welsh principal councils having seen positive house price growth over the last year.
The Vale of Glamorgan has been the best-performing area of the Welsh market over the last year, with house prices up +4.7%.
In the southwest county of Pembrokeshire, prices have increased by +2%, while Swansea (+0.8%), Cardiff (+0.4%), and Flintshire (+0.2%) have also seen upward growth.
In contrast, Ceredigion has seen the average house price fall by -11.4%, the worst performing of all the Welsh regions.
Six Welsh-related road names commanding house price premiums
But it’s not all bad news for Welsh homeowners this St. David’s Day, with some Welsh-related road names commanding healthy house price premiums in the current market.
Home Sale Pack analysed sold price data for all homes to have sold across Wales over the last year on a number of Welsh-related road names (2023 - latest available).
The data shows that the famous Welsh pride is making an obvious mark on the property market, as homes on roads containing the word ‘Wales’ or ‘Welsh’ command a sturdy price premium of 56.3% when compared to the average Welsh house price.
But an even more impressive premium is actually found in what some might consider a Welsh stereotype. Roads whose names contain the word ‘Sheep’ command the highest premium of all at 59.2% above the national average.
Other impressive premiums are also found on roads containing the words ‘Valley’ (31%), ‘Daffodil; (28.6%), ‘Dragon’ (19.3%), and St. David (4.8%).
Ruth Beeton, Co-Founder of Home Sale Pack, says: “There’s always fierce competition amongst the home nations, but unfortunately, the Welsh housing market has fared about the same as the Welsh rugby team over the last year, with just five areas seeing positive growth on an annual basis.
"But this won’t dent the spirit of the Welsh who are known for the ferocity of their national pride and it’s interesting to see that, while topline house price growth may have stuttered, house prices across some prominent Welsh-related road names are up by as much as 59% in the last year.”
