Dacorum house prices double in last 10 years

Property prices in Dacorum have almost doubled over the last decade, according to the latest figures from the UK House Price Index.

In October 2008 the average home in the borough cost £237,148.

But ten years later that had gone up by 75 per cent, to £415,010.

Dacorum’s Liberal Democrat councillors said this showed the need for a radical overall of the housing market.

Cllr Adrian England said: “Having a home is how we build our lives, but ‘Right to Buy’ now means ‘Privilege’.

“Lives are on hold and generations are permanently separated by where they can afford to live.”

While the price of all types of properties has risen sharply over the last decade in Dacorum, young people who want to make the next step from owning a flat or maisonette face an additional challenge.

The average price of these has gone up by 62 per cent, while prices of detached houses have gone up by 78 per cent, terraced houses by 80 per cent, and semi-detached homes by 81 per cent.

As a result the average detached property in Dacorum now sells for £850,265.

The cost of new build properties has gone up far more quickly than that of existing properties over the last decade too. In October 2008 a new build sold for an average of £266,745. By August 2018 that figure was £479,544.

The price of older properties went up by ‘only’ 70 per cent, but still cost an average of £399,979.

Across England the average property cost £247,914 in October. This was a 47 per cent more than 10 years earlier.

Fellow Lib Dem Cllr Ron Tindall added: “The national problem is one of a dysfunctional unfettered free markets coupled with ‘right to buy’ whereby the builders and developers control the supply to maximise profits, and the social homes we do have are at constant risk from the right-to-buy philosophy which has and will only ever enable a couple of generations to make a profit while leaving future generations homeless.”