Spa Town Living Comes With a Premium

    LONDON, ENGLAND, March 25, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- House prices in spa towns across England and Wales are on average GBP38,000 (or 16%) above their county average, according to Lloyds TSB research.

Average house prices in fifteen of the eighteen spa towns surveyed are significantly higher than those in their neighbouring towns, suggesting those in the market for a mortgage would need to borrow more to buy in these areas. Boston Spa (GBP153,629, or 98%) and Ilkley (GBP152,022, or 97%) - both in West Yorkshire - command the highest house price premium to their county average. Only three spa towns have house prices below their county average: Epsom in Surrey (-5%), Llandrindod Wells in Powys (-7%), and Boston in Lincolnshire (-15%).

Fifteen spa towns have seen houses prices at least double in the past decade. The largest increase was in Builth Wells in Powys (153%) followed by Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire (143%), Boston Spa (141%) and Matlock in Derbyshire (140%).

- Epsom is the most expensive spa town in the country with an average house price of GBP357,837, followed by Tunbridge Wells (GBP337,144) and Bath (GBP324,250).

- The least expensive spa towns are Boston in Lincolnshire with an average price of GBP132,912 and Llandrindod Wells in Wales (GBP168,428)

Nitesh Patel, Housing Economist at Lloyds TSB, said:
"Spa towns tend to have a larger stock of period architecture, such as Georgian or Regency, which are often larger and command higher prices. Spa towns are also often thought of as having a high quality of life, including excellent schools, lower crime rates, and lesser traffic volumes, all of which drive desirability in these areas and ramp up value. It all adds up to a significant success story for the housing market in these areas."

Other Findings
- Homebuyers would need a tracker or fixed rate mortgage worth over GBP100,000 to buy in one of the spa towns in Yorkshire's "Golden Triangle". House prices in the spa towns of Boston Spa, Ilkley, Harrogate and Knaresborough are, on average, GBP105,000 (or 59%) higher than their county average1.

- The average age of the housing stock in spa towns is 67 years, which is thirteen years older than for the UK (54). Bath and Matlock have the oldest housing stocks with an average property age of 92 years.

- Houses in spa towns also tend be bigger than in the UK as a whole, with an average of 5.5 habitable rooms3 compared to the national average of 5.2. The largest houses are in Ilkley and Malvern with an average of 5.8 habitable rooms in both towns.

Notes:
1 average for West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire.
2 Based on Halifax data
3 Habitable rooms include all rooms in the house besides bathrooms, toilets and kitchen.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The 18 spa towns are from the formerly known British Spa Association and various tourism sites.
2. House price data is from the Land Registry and refers to crude average prices. These prices are not standardised and therefore can be affected by changes in the sample from period to period. The data in the research covers the year to December in each year.

"This report is prepared from information that we believe is collated with care, however, it is only intended to highlight issues and it is not intended to be comprehensive. We reserve the right to vary our methodology and to edit or discontinue/withdraw this, or any other report. Any use of this report for an individual's own or third party commercial purposes is done entirely at the risk of the person making such use and solely the responsibility of the person or persons making such reliance."

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