Milton Keynes House Prices in 2022 – Leading Local Agent Predicts

House prices spent 2021 and much of the year before in the headlines as the UK saw value growth of around 8% between January and December 2021.

All eyes, therefore, are on 2022 and what the market may do in spite of all the rigours of the economy, political clownery, the pandemic and so on.

For many local homeowners and wannabe buyers though, the UK picture is not so relevant. Instead, ‘What’s going to happen in Milton Keynes?’ is the big question.

Dominic Marcel of Lion Estates, a leading local agent sets out his thoughts:

“Few would have expected UK house prices to increase at all during the pandemic let alone by 18.7%’ says Dominic. ‘Yet that is exactly what has happened”.

“A combination of ultra-low mortgage rates and government stimulus in the form of a 15 month long stamp duty holiday, saving buyers up to £15,000 in purchase tax, have combined to add considerable fuel to property demand and this, I suspect, is exactly what the Treasury were hoping for in a move to ensure that public sentiment and the wider economy were bolstered by rising house prices – a kind of ‘feel good factor’, if you will” he adds.

But will these lofty house price rises continue in 2022, especially here in the Milton Keynes area?

“Yes and no’ muses Dominic. ‘There’s too much demand in our area for prices not to increase further but we won’t see the stampede for property purchases that we saw last year and so growth in values will be slower. But many sellers pulled their selling decision forward to take advantage of the stamp duty break which means that estate agents everywhere are seeing significant stock shortages – and that’s good for sellers in maintaining an imbalance between demand and supply but obviously not so good for beleaguered buyers that crave choice”.

Sales Volumes

“Actually, Milton Keynes’s biggest challenge for quite a while has been a shortage of good homes for sale. The long term average is 355 homes sold each month in the borough yet in 2021 just 282 were sold and in 2020 an average of just 275 per month. Volumes are therefore actually decreasing from the peak of 2016 when typical sales were over 400 each month. People seem to be moving less regardless of the pandemic and whilst this is frustrating for us estate agents, it will keep prices more buoyant here than perhaps elsewhere in the country. In essence, MK is very popular”.

Dominic’s Prediction

“We know that Milton Keynes house prices have outperformed the UK in the past ten years’ says Dominic. ‘Locally, prices have risen by 71.5% in that time versus a national average of 50.4%. Therefore it’s safe to say that all things considered, with experts predicting a rise in national house prices this year of between 3% and 4%, we can expect Milton Keynes and the surrounding area to grow by more than that – probably between 5% and 6% by year end’.

‘If you own a property and are thinking of selling, you’re in the driving seat in 2022,” he adds.