Bradford has cheapest family homes in UK but sales take second longest

Bradford and Belfast are the cheapest cities in the UK to buy a typical three bedroom family house while London and Brighton are the most expensive, new research has found.Overall Northern cities are the most cost effective for families with homes of this size available for under £100,000, according to the research from MoneySupermarket. A three bedroom house can cost on average just £95,000 in Bradford, £139,975 in Belfast, £142,475 in Leeds, £175,000 in Swansea and £177,474 in Derby. London is the most expensive city to buy a three bedroom family home by a significant margin, by £1.2 million, the research also shows. The average cost for this sized property is £1,985,000. It means that London is nearly three times as expensive as the next most expensive city, Brighton, where the average three bedroom home costs £732,475, followed by Bristol at £687,500, Edinburgh at £510,000 and Birmingham at £367,500. Averages were based on the average of most and least expensive properties listed. Any outliers within the property listings, which would have made the overall average inaccurate, were not included. Meanwhile, separate research shows that the slowest place to sell a home in England is Sunderland, closely followed by Bradford, taking 302 and 287 days respectively. In third place is South Shields where property spends an average of 273 days on the market, followed by North Shields at 265 days, Rochdale at 264 days, Darlington at 255 days, Middlesbrough at 254 days and Oldham at 230 days. While the longest time to sell is very much found in towns and cities in the North of England, the research from agents Ready, Steady Sell, also shows that some locations in London also take a long time to sell, most notably Knightsbridge at 235 days on the market and Charing Cross at 231 days. The research also found that the main attraction for most potential buyers is the school catchment area, followed by the location, size, the overall the condition of the property and the nearby amenities. Only 3% or survey respondents felt that having a garage was a selling feature that would entice potential buyers, 29% felt that off street parking was a determining factor and 23% felt their garden would give their property the wow factor when it came to selling. ‘Anyone looking to sell their property quickly in 2018 on the open market may struggle in these areas without some added influencing factor, like being in the catchment area of a good school,’ said David Sessford, of Ready, Steady Sell. ‘Sunderland is particularly a difficult place for most estate agents to sell property quickly at market value prices, and vendors need to be realistic with their asking prices in order to achieve a quicker than average home sale,’ he added.