Buying a house in Wolverhampton or Walsall? Prices are cheaper by up to a third than a decade ago

Homes in St Peter’s, Heath Town and Bilston East wards in Wolverhampton are selling for more than 30 per cent less now, after accounting for inflation, than they were a decade ago.

This works out at around £17,000 less per home.

Official data from the Land Registry database shows the only ward in the city where prices have gone up in real terms since 2007 is Bushbury South and Low Hill – by 13 per cent. Prices are currently on average £139,950.

In St Peter’s house prices are down by 31 per cent to £91,000, in Heath Town by 32 per cent to £98,000 and in Bilston East by 31 per cent, to £92,500.

Even more upmarket areas like Penn and Tettenhall have seen falls, down 16 per cent and around 10 per cent respectively in real terms.

Heath Town ward councillor Milkinder Jaspal said he was ‘disappointed’ with the figures.

He said: “It’s a difficult situation at the moment as we haven’t seen prices rise in Wolverhampton. I can’t understand it because we’re in a really unique position.

“Our unemployment figures are going down and there’s been a lot of development going on but house prices aren’t following as you would expect. I’m very disappointed.

"But there’s a feelgood factor with the development and employment is getting better – we’ve got a lot of investment going on.”

Housing market analyst Neal Hudson said an income squeeze has restricted house price growth. He said: “Some people are trapped in their current homes as they have seen no increase in their income and cannot afford to borrow more.

“Potential first-time buyers in the private rented sector do not have a sufficient or stable income to buy their first home.”

House prices in the Wolverhampton area rose by the lowest level in the Black Country and Staffordshire in the last 12 months.

The average house price in the city was £136,845 in August, according to figures from the Land Registry – up just 0.2 per cent from a year before when the figure was £136,538.

Meanwhile house prices across Walsall have gone down in price by as much as 27 per cent compared to a decade ago, after accounting for inflation, with 16 out of 17 wards seeing a drop.

The area hit by the biggest decrease is Birchills Leamore, at 27 per cent, while the only ward to see prices increase is Streetly – by 6.7 per cent. In terms of value, the average price of a home in Birchills Leamore is £100,000, while in Streetly it is £262,500.

Official data from the Land Registry database shows that Birchills Leamore experienced the biggest house price drop, with the next closest wards Brownhills and Palfrey, which both fell by 17 per cent.

Councillor Mike Bird, leader of the borough’s Conservative party, said concerns around schools, leisure and jobs were to blame.

He said: “I think these figures are a reflection of where Walsall is at at the moment, unfortunately.

“You look at the town centre and footfall is down compared to where it was 10 to 15 years ago, we are not attracting big names to the town and shops are closing.

“That doesn’t entice people to come to Walsall and at the end of the day people will only pay what they think a house is worth.

“We do have some good schools in the borough but not enough to attract people for that reason alone and that is also a major factor when people look at buying a house.

“If we move with the times and start trying to attract major technology companies to the area we could see more people wanting to move here for work and then house prices will rise.”