I have done some research on the good old terraced house that I hope you will find of interest my ‘Portishead property blog’ reading friends!
In architecture terms, a terraced or townhouse is a style of housing in use since the late 1600’s in the UK, where a row of symmetrical / identical houses share their side walls. The first terraced houses were actually built by a French man, Monsieur Barbon around St. Paul’s Cathedral within the rebuilding process after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Interestingly, it was the French that invented the terraced house around 1610-15 in the Le Marais district of Paris with its planned squares and properties with identical facades. However, it was the 1730’s in the UK, that the terraced/townhouse came into its own in London and of course in Bath with the impressive Royal Crescent.
However, we are in Portishead, not Bath, so the majority of our Portishead terraced houses were built in the 1970’s and 2000 onwards. These 20th Century designed terraced or town houses, whilst not the prettiest properties from the outside offer the homeowner or tenant light with their large windows, openness. Mostly laid out over two storeys, they offer lost of property for your money, many often built with large windows and patio doors and picture windows. The gardens are massive compared to today’s modern properties. Again, it’s a classic case of not judging a book by its cover
Looking at the makeup of all the properties in Portishead, some very interesting numbers appear. Of the 10,696 properties in Portishead …
4,266 are Detached properties (39.9%)
2,511 are Semi Detached properties (23.5%)
1,484 are Terraced / Town House properties (13.8%)
2,374 are Apartment/ Flat’s (22.3%)
And quite noteworthy, there are 61 mobile homes, representing 0.5% of all property in Portishead.
When it comes to values, the average price paid for a Portishead terraced house in 1995 was £44,000 and the latest set of figures released by the land Registry states that today that figure stands at £322,300, a rise of 633% - not bad when you consider detached properties in Portishead in the same time frame have only risen by 246%.
But then a lot of buy to let landlords and first time buyers I speak to think the terraced house is expensive to maintain. I recently read a report from English Heritage that stated maintaining a typical Victorian terraced house over thirty years is around sixty percent cheaper than building and maintaining a modern house- which is quite fascinating don’t you think!
Don’t dismiss the humble terraced house – especially in Portishead!
For more thoughts on the Portishead Property market contact our Office on 01275 840600.