Home-sellers in 2017 'gained nearly £92,500 typically on what they had paid'

Updated

The average house-vendor in 2017 sold their home for £92,466 more than they had originally paid for it, having lived in the property for nine years, analysis has found.

Nine in 10 (92.2%) people who sold their homes across England and Wales this year did so for more than they had paid for it, up from 90% in 2016. And nearly one in five (18%) sellers in 2017 doubled their money.

With the exception of London, sellers in every region saw bigger gains than in 2016.

Sellers in London still gained an average of £252,196 - over three times more than the average seller outside London at £76,367.

And around one in three Londoners who sold their home did so for at least twice what they had paid for it, according to the findings from estate agent Hamptons International.

Cash gains
Cash gains

Despite a cooldown in the London property market in 2017, sellers in Kensington and Chelsea gained more than anyone else in the country, an average of £940,494 - albeit less than the £1,060,875 average gain there in 2016.

The smallest average gain was in Burnley in Lancashire, at £19,639.

The report tracked repeat sales of properties using Land Registry figures to make the findings.

Sellers in the North East were found to be least likely to make a profit, with just under 79% doing so.

And in a change from last year, sellers in the South East are now more likely to sell their home for a profit than those in London, at 97.6% versus 97.4%.

Johnny Morris, head of research at Hamptons International, said: "House prices have grown considerably over the nine years the average seller has owned their home.

"Many sellers will have added value by renovating, extending or developing but the bulk of their gains come from price growth.

"The London housing market has been cooler than the rest of the country in 2017, but London sellers still make the largest gains, by a long way.

"This year the average London seller bought their home nearly nine years ago and has seen its value rise by more than quarter of a million pounds.

"Even with slowing price growth, most owners are still sitting on plenty of growth from previous years."

Here are the average gains made by house-sellers in 2017, followed by the percentage of sellers who made a gain and the percentage of sellers who doubled their money, according to calculations from Hamptons International:

London, £252,196, 97.4%, 33%
South East, £127,134, 97.6%, 18%
East of England, £112,533, 97.3%, 19%
South West, £81,030, 94.3%, 16%
West Midlands, £55,489, 91.6%, 15%
East Midlands, £54,850, 93%, 16%
North West, £46,840, 86.2%, 17%
Yorkshire and the Humber, £44,330, 85.7%, 17%
Wales, £42,669, 86.2%, 18%
North East, £31,833, 78.7%, 15%

Here are the top 10 areas where sellers made the biggest average gains in 2017, with the gain and the percentage of sellers who doubled their money:

1. Kensington and Chelsea, London, £940,494, 45%
2. City Of Westminster, London, £635,614, 42%
3. Camden, London, £557,460, 39%
4. City Of London, London, £459,315, 49%
5. Hammersmith and Fulham, London, £425,857, 33%
6. Islington, London, £351,915, 32%
7. Richmond-upon-Thames, London, £337,885, 31%
8. Hackney, London, £310,138, 41%
9. Elmbridge, South East, £308,999, 24%
10. Wandsworth, London, £308,076, 29%

And here are the areas where sellers made the largest gains regionally, according to Hamptons International, with the average gain in 2017 and the percentage of sellers who doubled their money in a particular area:

London, Kensington and Chelsea, £940,494, 45%
South East, Elmbridge, £308,999, 24%
East of England, St Albans, £240,447, 26%
South West, Bath and North East Somerset, £140,718, 21%
East Midlands, South Northamptonshire, £96,429, 15%
West Midlands, Warwick, £107,265, 17%
North West, Trafford, £110,000, 19%
Yorkshire and the Humber, Harrogate, £96,764, 17%
North East, Northumberland, £43,815, 16%
Wales, Vale Of Glamorgan, £67,328, 18%

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