Property for sale: Profit from selling houses in Sheffield almost double original price

Research shows current homesellers in the city are likely to have made 89% profit during the average length of homeownership.

The figure comes from research by property portal MoveStreets which shows homes in Yorkshire are owned for an average of almost 20 years. The price buyers would have paid in 2001 was £60,055. Taking inflation into account, that becomes £101,576.

If they sold now, they are likely to get £192,354 – the average sale price in 2021 and a profit of 89%.

That figure puts Sheffield and Yorkshire as third best in Britain – behind first placed Wales and the North West in second.

Homeowners in Wales typically own their property for an average of 22.6 years. A homeowner who purchased in February 1999 would have paid £48,455 - £85,875 once adjusted for inflation. With the average house price across Wales now £196,216, that’s a 128% increase.

Adam Kamani, chief executive officer and co-founder of MoveStreets, said: “With the festive period now behind us, many homeowners will be getting their house in order with the view to selling in 2022. Over the last year, we’ve seen some explosive rates of house price growth and so those now entering the market are likely to be doing so at a considerably higher sum than the price they originally purchased their home for.

“While there are always fears that we may see a repeat of previous house price drops, the cyclical nature of the property market means that there’s a good chance you’ll have seen an increase by the time you do come to sell.

“Just remember, a realistic valuation is key to a quick sale and so avoid any unrealistic expectations if you want to avoid an initial period of little to no interest before inevitably adjusting your asking price expectations further down the line.”

The research comes as another survey shows Sheffield is home to one of the most valuable property markets based on the cumulative value of housing stock in the current market.

Property platform Boomin lists Sheffield as sixth in a league of 23 UK cities with property stock valued at £49bn. London is top of the league, which shows Sheffield has a total dwelling stock of 251,877.

Michael Bruce, chief executive officer and founder of Boomin, said: “While much has been made about the exodus of urban homebuyers to greener pandemic pastures, our major cities continue to act as the cornerstone of the property market and their size and value is only going to grow stronger, as our population increases and the next generation of homebuyers enters the market.”

Sheffield also features in the latest data from the UK’s biggest property website Rightmove. It says Sheffield was the sixth most searched for location in 2021 in a list topped by London and Cornwall. Sheffield beat traditional property hotspots such as York, Edinburgh and Dorset.