Housing boom was linked to ‘sizeable joint incomes’
HOUSE prices in the area boomed in 1987 with the cost of properties rising by at least 15 per cent – marking the year as the busiest on record at the time for the property market.
John Howard, the managing director of Christie and Co, said that the confidence in the market covered not only private housing but also commercial property.
While Robert Anderson of estate agent John German said buyers would now pay a substantial premium to make certain that they acquired the type of property they wanted.
He gave one example in Derbyshire where an Elizabethan manor house was expected to sell for £200,000 but eventually changed hands for £250,000.
John German put the increased demand for more expensive homes down to sizeable joint incomes being generated by young couples and the availability of mortgages.
John Day of Christies in Birmingham said: “We foresee no downturn in demand. In fact more people than ever before are joining our applicants’ registers. The biggest problem is matching supply with demand.”