Crawley Property Market Report: Trends Over the Past 12 Months

A report to show residential rental properties and buy/let properties in Crawley, over the past 12 months.

From 2023- 2024, the UK has seen many economic influences to the housing market. Whilst the price for rental properties have increased, causing a disadvantage to rentors, the average price for first time buyers have stayed near enough the same, as well as properties on the market in Crawley, have stayed the same. This report will break down statistics for sale and rental properties, as well as for new builds.

Sales Property

Over the last 12 months the average sales price in Crawley, West Sussex was £350,635. The average price on a per square foot basis was £396. – Dataloft, Land Registry, DLUHC. This is in line with South East of England. Clearly, this shows that property prices have not been affected differently in Crawley, to the rest of South – East England.

Having said that, in October 2023, the average price of a property in Crawley was £363,000 a year earlier. (Office for National Statistics). This slight reduction isn’t alarming, considering the average Uk house price had decreased by 1.2% overall. (Dataloft, Bank of England, HMRC, ONS, DLUHC).

Its also important to note that in Feb 2024, the average price for flats in Crawley stayed around the same over the year, while the average price for terraced properties decreased by 2.1%. One reason for this is because there are many flats and regeneration being built in and around Crawley, as there is more supply of flats, there are competitive prices, so the prices for flats may stay the same at a competitive rate.

Kilnstone Property has sold 10 properties in the past year, compared to another independent competitior, who sold approx. 14 properties. This is positive for both companies as Kilnstone Property sold 9 the previous year (2023). Therefore, there has not been much impact on the amount of properties being sold. This is also reflective of demand expressed by the Bank of England as there were 50,067 mortgage approvals in November, a 4.6% uptick on the previous month and 9.9% above the same time last year (Bank of England).

New builds

Crawley has seen an increase in New builds over the past few years, with 601 new builds built in the past 12 months (Dataloft). There have been around 245,000 new homes built nationally over the past year. These properties are intended for build to rent rather than sale.

Rishi Sunak has announced a u-turn on the government’s sustainability agenda. It seems that landlords will no longer have to have to achieve a minimum EPC grade to let out a property, as previously proposed. Therefore, we will see a rise as new build for rental purposes. This is supported by a study by Knight Frank Britain's build-to-rent sector has doubled in value from £35bn in 2019 to £71bn in 2023, and is expected to reach £126bn by 2028. This is largely because of the new build sector.

New builds are not particularly popular in Crawley when it comes to sales compared to resales of properties. In Crawley, the number of new build sales were 68, compared to 1,210 resale properties (Dataloft). This suggests that when it comes to buying properties, homeowners are not particularly looking at new builds.

As a point of further evidence, the average price of a new home in Crawley over the past 12 months was £574,158, compared to £346,110 for a resale (Land Registry). This essentially means that new build sales are rare compared to resales, the price is on average much higher than resales. With the current economic climate over the past 12 months, buyers may be more inclined for a stable house rather than a new build which is more expensive.

Rental/ Lettings

The biggest change in the past 12 months has been the increase in rental prices for tenants in Crawley. Over the last 12 months, the average rent achieved for homes let in Crawley, West Sussex was £1,231 per month. This is a +11% change on the previous 12 month period. (Dataloft). Kilnstone Property let around 11 properties in the past 12 months, whereas another indepdant competitor let around 9 approximately. This is lower than sale properties, as the rental prices are increasing quite rapidly.

This 11% increase can be accredited to the economy crashing last year. For example, The Bank of England had held base rates at 5.25% in November, which stayed for at least another six weeks. Ultimately this left a crash on the economy, as inflation increased. As a result, the consequences were apparent in increasing rental prices. As an estate agent, witnessing how both landlords and tenants were subject to the crashing economy was devastating, as tenants could not afford the increased rent. Tenants are struggling when it comes to disposable income, a recent Financial Conduct Authority survey found over two-fifths of renters (42%) said their disposable income had gone down a lot over the last 12 months in England or that they had no disposable income whatsoever, compared to the UK average of 28% (The Big Issue). As an estate agent it is difficult to see that the lifestyle and mental health of the
tenants / our clients is being affected.

This is a national factor, that affected the entire nation. For example, At 6.1% in October, annual growth in rental prices in the UK is at its strongest since records began. (The Index of Private Rented Housing Prices reports on both new lets and renewal). Clearly, this is not just a local issue, but also a national issue.

Another reason why rental prices may be increasing is because following Covid, people are now looking to rent again, rather than staying with their families. Rightmove have stated that the competition of tenants to find a property has doubled since 2019. This low supply in rental homes may be driving an increase in rental prices. I can also see the supply issue being more prominent as the Rentors Reform Bill includes changes such as tenants being able to bring pets in to the home. As a result we may see less landlords putting their properties on the market for rent. The Rentors Reform Bill does give some power to the tenants, but may be deterring landlords. Looking forward, rising rental prices will still be a big issues for tenants, Hamptons estate agency predicts rents will rise more than four times as fast as house prices between now and the end of 2026. (which.com). Simultaneously, Crawley will be affected by these increasing rates, as our tenants will, who Kilnstone Property have formed rapport with.

Conclusion

Following thorough research of data of the local property market in Crawley from 2023 – 2024, it is clear that it follows the overall national trend. The economy has been the driving factor in the increase of price for rental properties, as well as buyers favouring resale properties, rather than new builds. From these findings, it is clear that Kilnstone Property sits within the trend with its competitors and the overall market is reflective of this.