Thursday 28 July 2016

The Crawley Love Affair With Its 18,179 Terraced Houses



Call me old fashioned, but I do like the terraced house.   In fact, I have done some research that I hope you will find of interest my Crawley property market blog reading friends!

In architecture terms, a terraced or townhouse is a style of housing in use since the late 1600’s in the UK, where a row of symmetrical / identical houses share their side walls. The first terraced houses were actually built by a French man, Monsieur Barbon around St. Paul’s Cathedral within the rebuilding process after the Great Fire of London in 1666.  Interestingly, it was the French that invented the terraced house around 1610-15 in the Le Marais district of Paris with its planned squares and properties with identical facades. However, it was the 1730’s in the UK, that the terraced/townhouse came into its own in London and of course in Bath with the impressive Royal Crescent.

However, we are in Crawley, not Bath, so the majority of our Crawley terraced houses were built firstly in the Victorian era and then as a result of the New Town commssion expansion of Crawley.  Built on the back of the Industrial Revolution, with people flooding into the towns and cities for work in Victorian times, the terraced house offered decent livable accommodation away from the slums. An interesting fact is that the majority of Victorian Crawley terraced houses are based on standard design of a ‘posh’ front room, a back room (where the family lived day to day) and scullery off that.  Off the scullery, a door to a rear yard, whilst upstairs, three bedrooms (the third straight off the second).  Interestingly, the law was changed in 1875 with the Public Health Act and each house had to have 108ft of livable space per main room, running water, it’s own outside toilet and rear access to allow the toilet waste to be collected (they didn’t have public sewers in those days in Crawley – well not at least where these ‘workers’ terraced houses were built).

It was the 1960’s and 70’s where inside toilets and bathrooms were installed (often in that third bedroom or an extension off the scullery) and gas central heating in the 1980’s and replacement Upvc double glazing ever since.

Looking at the make up of all the properties in Crawley, some very interesting numbers appear.  Of the 43,701 properties in Crawley …

6,001 are Detached properties (13.7%)
9,066 are Semi Detached properties (20.7%)
18,179 are Terraced / Town House properties (41.6%)
10,455 are Apartment/ Flat’s (23.9%)

And quite noteworthy, there are 10 mobile homes, representing 0.02% of all property in Crawley. 

When it comes to values, the average price paid for a Crawley terraced house in 1995 was £56,420 and the latest set of figures released by the land Registry states that today that figure stands at £274,000, a rise of 386% - not bad when you consider apartments in Crawley in the same time frame have only risen by 278%.

But then a lot of buy to let landlords and first time buyers I speak to think the Victorian terraced house is expensive to maintain.  I recently read a report from English Heritage that stated maintaining a typical Victorian terraced house over thirty years is around sixty percent cheaper than building and maintaining a modern house- which is quite fascinating don’t you think!

Don’t dismiss the humble terraced house – especially in Crawley!  For more thoughts on the Crawley Property Market – visit www.mycrawleyhome.com

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Bargain 2 Bed in West Green



You can’t get much closer to the town centre than these flats in Sunnymead, West Green.  As most tenant enquiries specify they want to be close to town or close to the station then you know this property will fly off the shelf.  Just added on rightmove by Connells in the high street you can view the details by clicking the link:


Now, I’d be the first to say that this block does not have the same curb appeal as the modern development across the road but you can’t even buy a one bedroom flat in the new development at this price.  Built by the New Town Commission at the very start of their plans to develop Crawley into a new town in the 1950’s the flats are incredibly spacious.  The lounge/dining room has a balcony, perfect for clothes airers or that gin & tonic when home from work.  The kitchen is separate, unlike most modern flats you can close the door & not have to look at the washing up that has not been done yet.  The two double bedrooms makes the property perfect for singles, couples, sharers and those with children.  Parking is available but for tenants without cars there is a choice of Morrisons, ASDA or Sainsburys supermarkets all within a couple minutes walk.  It is clear from the photos that this flat could do with some updating and that could be used to bargain on the price.  But with a current rental valuation of £925 it is possible to achieve a 6% yield on this property. 
Sunnymead, West Green

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Crawley population set to rise to 132,736 by 2036



Crawley faces a predicament. The population is growing and the provision of new housing isn’t keeping up. With the average age of a Crawley person being 36.8 years (compared to the South East average of 40.0 years old and the national average of 39.4 years of age), the population of Crawley is growing at an alarming rate. This is due to an amalgamation of longer life expectancy, a fairly high birth rate (compared to previous decades) and high net immigration, all of which contribute to housing shortages and burgeoning house prices.

Durham University have produced some statistics specifically for the Crawley Borough Council area. Known as the UK’s leading authority for such statistics, their population projections make some startling reading…

For the Crawley Borough Council area ... these are the statistics and future forecasts

2016 population           112,541
2021 population           118,526
2026 population           123,780
2031 population           128,368
2036 population           132,736

The normal ratio of people to property is 2 to 1 in the UK, which therefore means...

We need just over 10,000 additional new properties to be built
in the Crawley Borough Council area over the next 20 years.

Whilst focusing on population growth does not tackle the housing crisis in the short term in Crawley, it has a fundamental role to play in long-term housing development and strategy in the town. The rise of Crawley property values over the last six years since the credit crunch are primarily a result of a lack of properties coming onto the market, a lack of new properties being built in the town and rising demand (especially from landlords looking to buy property to rent them out to the growing number of people wanting to live in Crawley but can’t buy or rent from the Council).

Although many are talking about the need to improve supply (i.e. the building of new properties), the issue of accumulative demand from population growth is often overlooked. Nationally, the proportion of 25-34 year olds who own their own home has dropped dramatically from 66.7% in 1987 to 43.8% in 2014, whilst 78.2% of over 65s own their own home. Longer life expectancies mean houses remain in the same hands for longer.


The swift population growth over the last thirty years provides more competition for the young than for mature population.  It might surprise some people that 98% of all the land in the UK is either industrial, commercial or agricultural, with only two percent being used for housing, which means one could propose expanding supply to meet a expanding population by building on green belt – that most Politian’s haven’t got the stomach to tackle, especially in the Tory’ strongholds of the South of England, where the demand is the greatest. People mention brownfield sites, but recent research suggests there aren’t as many sites to build on, especially in Crawley that could accommodate 10,000 properties in the next 20 years.

In the short to medium term, demand for a roof over of one’s head will continue to grow in Crawley (and the country as a whole). In the short term, that demand can only be met from the private rental sector (which is good news for homeowners and landlords alike as that keeps house prices higher).

In the long term though, local and national Government and the UK population as a whole, need to realise these additional millions of people over the next 20 years need to live somewhere. Only once this issue starts to get addressed, in terms of extra properties being built in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, can we all help create a socially ecological prosperous future for everyone. For more thoughts on the Crawley Property market, please visit the Crawley Property Market Blog at mycrawleyhome.com