Property in Wales

Property for sale in Wales

Those thinking of buying a home in Wales are considering moving to a varied and beautiful new environment.
Wales is a diverse mix of rugged coastlines, vibrant big cities, traditional seaside resorts and hills, valleys and mountains.
The housing market in Wales is buoyant this year and Campbell Evans of Carmarthen-based estate agent Evans Brothers said: “It is ticking over nicely with prices up by about 10% this year. We are seeing good sales to people looking for detached properties or properties with land. We get people from all over the UK looking at properties in Wales.”

Prices vary a great deal around the country with the cities such as the capital Cardiff attracting a premium while there are some bargain-priced options in the country particularly for those prepared to renovate a rundown home. The average house price in Wales is now £123,000.

In Wales the housing market, like the rest of the UK, is calmer now following the British government’s plan to damp down the raging price increases of two to three years ago.
The slightly higher interest rates have calmed the prices in the UK housing market in general and Campbell Evans said: “A couple of years ago we had many inquiries from and sales to people from the South East of England where prices were rising so high.”

The Chartered Institute of Housing in Wales has, however, voiced concerns in a recent report it produced about housing affordability particularly for the young and first-time buyers.
There are several areas of Wales which have become the most popular in which people want to buy. In the south-western corner of Wales, Pembrokeshire, with its islands, beautiful coastline and coastal national park, tops the poll followed by Powys in eastern Wales, Cardiff on the south coast, Ceredigion the former Cardiganshire in the west and Denbighshire on he north coast.

The most affordable areas for first time buyers are around Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent and Rhondda Cynon Taff – the former mining areas which are undergoing a revitalisation.

Holiday Homes Wales

Buying a second or holiday home in Wales was once a highly vexed question. Some nationalists felt that outsiders buying additional premises meant fewer homes for the native Welsh within the land of their fathers and some extremists took matters into their own hands.
For a period of time they sought to resolve the situation outside the law by the firebombing of properties with absentee owners. There have been few recorded cases in recent years.

Currently the extremism appears to have gone out of the situation but generally estate agents say that few people will now admit they are buying a Welsh holiday or second home.
However some councils around the principality of Wales have their own regulations which prevent the sales of properties to anyone outside a certain radius. This has led to a heated debate in some quarters but the councils which enforce the rule – and it is not all councils who have the regulation – say they are working to make sure locals have an equal chance at properties.

They also say it will guard against inflated prices if properties are not sold to outsiders with a greater spending power than those living locally.

The same system of house purchase operates in Wales as does in England. This involves finding a property and putting a bid which – you hope – will not be gazumped by a rival while the lengthy legal process goes on.

Then it is the process of the paying of deposits and exchanging contracts before finally completing the deal.

The morning after a move to Wales you could be greeted, when you pull back the curtains, with the view from your hillside property down into a green valley; or the distant peak of Mount Snowdon, which, at 1,085 metres, is the highest peak in England and Wales. Only Scotland’s Ben Nevis is higher in the British Isles.
Alternatively the view could be coastal, overlooking long sandy beaches or rocky shores and headland cliffs. This is the variety that Wales offers.

The welcome they will be keeping in the hillside will overall be a good one wherever a newcomer settles in Wales; and wherever they come from.
English is widely spoken but about 20 per cent of the people in Wales speak the Welsh language fluently. The Welsh-speaking tradition has been kept very much alive in the rural and northern parts of the principality. It is alive and kicking through cultural events such as eisteddfods, a national platform for the Welsh language through poetry, literature and music.

It is not compulsory but the Welsh, particularly in areas where the language use is strong, appreciate someone taking the trouble to master a difficult tongue – even just a little. Certainly it will speed a newcomer’s integration in an area.

Back to home page