That’s the verdict of new investigation into how serious flooding events over the past 10 years have impacted the growth in property prices.
According to GetAgent.co.uk, which has undertaken the research, house prices have increased by some 49% across England in the last decade.
In areas which are marked as ‘at risk of flooding’ by the Environment Agency, growth had trailed marginally behind at 47%.
But, in the wider counties in which these flood-risk locations were found prices had increased at 45% during the same time frame. GetAgent said this suggested flood risk areas were outperforming the more local market.
Flood-hit areas
It pinpointed some areas where price growth had trailed behind the wider area – with the worst-hit location being North Lincolnshire. Here local house prices slumped by 16% less than the growth seen across the county as whole.
In East Hertfordshire house prices had lagged behind growth across Hertfordshire as a whole by 9% in the last decade.
Chichester (-9%), Southampton (-8%), Arun (-8%), Maidstone (-8%), Folkestone and Hythe (-7%), Newark and Sherwood (-7%), Richmond upon Thames (-7%) and Boston (-6%) had also seen some of the lowest rates of local house price growth when compared to the wider area in the last 10 years, said GetAgent.
Colby Short, founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, said: “On a case-by-case basis, flooding is costing homeowners thousands upon thousands and those worst at risk year in year out will no doubt struggle to sell at a decent price as a result.
“However, looking across the nation at the top line, the risk of flooding is yet to dampen house price growth across the majority of these most at risk areas and in fact, house prices in a lot of flood risk areas are climbing at a faster pace than the wider areas they are situated within.”
He added: “It’s becoming very clear that attempts to protect the nation’s homeowners from more frequent floodwaters are inadequate and more must be done to help those in need safeguard what is likely to be their most expensive asset.”
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