Birmingham blighted by fall in city centre flat prices

Average property prices in some of the UK’s city centres are showing sharp falls as a result of the plummeting values of flats and apartments.

According to research by property price website, mouseprice.com, the value of city centre flats in Birmingham have fallen more steeply than anywhere else in the UK.

Some areas of the city have seen prices decline by as much as 17%, with flats and apartments in the Centenary Plaza and King Edwards Wharf areas selling for less than their original purchase prices, in 2003.

According to mouseprice, the average price of a property to the west of Birmingham city centre, which is peppered with developments of new build flats, has fallen to £153,500.

Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool are also afflicted.

In Manchester’s Deansgate prices are down 17.1%; Elmwood Lane in Leeds down by 16.3% and Walton Hall Avenue in Liverpool, down 12.6%.

Mouseprice.com director, Selwyn Lim, points out that the price falls do not correlate with the original price paid for the properties, or the desirability of the areas in which they are located.

At the height of the UK property boom, large numbers of new build city centre apartments were sold to buy-to-let investors, many of whom are now facing difficulties remortgaging.

Buy-to-let mortgage providers have been withdrawing from the market since the onset of the credit crisis and the collapse last month of Bradford & Bingley, the country’s largest buy-to-let lender, has made matters worse.

Forced sales and repossession could therefore impact further on the value of city centre flats and apartments.

The mouseprice survey is based on Land Registry statistics and valuations by surveyors.

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