Published on Thu Sep 08 06:15:00 BST 2011
The most expensive house currently listed for sale in the LS12 postcode of west Leeds, according to the Zoopla property website, is a sprawling bungalow with a one-acre garden, 15 acres of attached land, a pool and stables.
The idyllic home in Low Moor Side Lane, New Farnley, will set you back a cool £1.25 million.
Just down the road in Armley, however, you can pick up a pretty, modernised two-bedroom back-to-back house for £65,000.
The million-pound price gap between these properties – with the same postcode but at extreme ends of the money scale – is a prime example of the breadth of the property market in this part of the city.
However it’s not the mansions and sprawling bungalows that make west Leeds – taking in the diverse suburbs of Armley, Bramley, Pudsey, Calverley and Rodley – a continuing attractive draw for the average potential homebuyer and first timer. It’s the affordability of its two and three bedroom family homes and back to backs.
According to the latest research, the average asking price in this part of the city is currently £134,000, a signal of vendors’ optimism.
However the average property value in LS12 has dropped by more than £2,800 (2.31 per cent) in the past year and is down by almost SIX per cent from the highs of 2008.
Values have plunged almost TEN per cent, and an average £13,000, from 2007’s boom period.
In 2006, the average price paid for a new home in LS12 was £121,000. However in the past year that has dropped to £112,000 – an eight per cent decrease overall.
A modernised two-bedroom back to back house which would have fetched anything between £95k and £100k in the height of the boom. is now selling at around the £65k-£70k mark, potentially a 35 percent drop.
Optimism
Experts admit there is a certain level of unrealistic pricing from some vendors, and estate agents are spending as much time educating sellers as they are doing deals.
But the west Leeds property market remains healthier than many, they say, and there is much genuine optimism – and still bargains aplenty.
Wortley-based valuer Helen Terry has been working for Leeds estate agent Manning Stainton for five and a half years and is currently its branch manager. She has hundreds of properties on her books ranging from a £32,000 flat – her cheapest ‘for sale’ listing – to a detached house worth nearly 10 times that much.
She believes the things that set west Leeds’ and LS12’s property market apart–- and which will always make it an attractive prospect for buyers – are its sheer versatility, affordability and accessibility factors.
“Here in west Leeds we have quite a mixture of houses but we do have a lot better value for money than the likes of Horsforth and those kind of areas,” she told the YEP.
“We have lots of nice residential pockets but lots of urban areas too. We have nice parks yet are so close to the city and motorways and have good bus routes. It’s good value because you are on the doorstep for everything.”
Miss Terry says this part of the city has always drawn a lot of first time buyers and investors.
“Obviously those parts of the market have been heavily affected [by the recession] because the mortgage multiples have decreased,” she said.
“It’s returned to a more sensible market and we are in a more level playing field now.
“Buyers are extremely fussy now. They have saved and saved a large deposit just to get on the ladder and because that money is so precious they are just very cautious.
“There’s a lot more work involved for us and we have to spend a lot of time educating vendors.
“But people will always need a house to live in, and there will always be someone needing to sell a house.”
Scott Bacon, from William H Brown in Pudsey, has spent 10 years as an estate agent covering the Pudsey (LS28) and Bramley (LS13) postcodes and currently has around 240 properties in his list of “live stock”.
“Pudsey has always been a lively market town and that’s not really changed,” he says.
“Our average house price in Pudsey is £130k, although we have a good range of properties at £80k and £90k all the way up to £250k.
“There are also some beautiful pockets of Bramley, which is a huge postcode.
“There’s a real range in west Leeds. It’s a cheap area to get into that offers a lot. You get very good value for money if you are comparing it to any other part of Leeds.”
Scott explains Clara Drive in Calverley, with its large six and seven bedroom detached houses, is “by far and away” the most expensive street in west Leeds.
At the cheaper end of the scale, his firm is currently marketing a two-bedroom ex-council house in Langley Road, Bramley, which he admits “ needs a bit of love” but is a snip at £67,000.
Top valued property on Scott’s own books is a £530,000 mansion, again in Low Moorside, New Farnley.
Challenging
But for Scott, it’s the “bread and butter” sales that remain the most personally satisfying ones, and a large part of it, he says, is helping vendors and buyers find that often difficult “happy medium”.
He admits the market – and his job – remain “challenging” and vendors have got to be more realistic and even “aggressive” in their pricing. So, for example, a house that would have sold for £165,000 at the height of the boom, could sell now for £125,000, and still be considered a good deal for both buyer and seller.
“We are getting a bit of a Mexican stand-off between buyers and vendors at the moment,” he said.
“People are a lot more cautious now. They have got a lot more time. In 2006 they were panic buying. There is a lot more time now for people to think about questions like ‘which day is the bin round?’ and which way the garden faces “As an agent, you have to go into a little more detail now. But I think the vendors now have got a bigger job than ourselves because they have to produce something of a much better quality to get the right price.”