Revealed! The best decade to have purchased a property

The 1980s may be most fondly remembered for bad hairdos and questionable fashion, but it may have also been the best decade to have got onto the property ladder.

Estate agent comparison website GetAgent has analysed house price data going back as far as the 1970s, adjusting for inflation, to see which decade has been the most fruitful for the nation’s homeowners. 

The research shows that back in Jan 2010, the average UK house price was £167,469, climbing to £231,792 by the end of the decade - a 38.4% increase. 

However, after adjusting for inflation, the rate of house price growth seen between Jan 2010 and December 2019 actually sits at just 14.8%, the second lowest rate of house price growth of any of the last five decades.

It’s only been the 1990s when the market has posted a worst performance, with house prices increasing by just 9.7% after adjusting for inflation, according to the research.

While the noughties wasn’t a bad decade for homebuyers, it still ranks just third where inflation adjusted house price growth is concerned, with the average UK house price climbing 66.8% when adjusted for inflation.

The 1970s ranks second, with house prices climbing by 69.8% after adjusting for inflation, but it’s the 1980s that have proved the best decade to buy a home, GetAgent claims.

After adjusting for inflation, the average UK house price was just £66,783 back in January 1980. By the end of the decade, the cost of buying bricks and mortar had climbed to £127,207, a 90.5% increase. 

Colby Short, founder of GetAgent, said: “There’s plenty of reasons why we may argue one decade was better than the rest, but when it comes to house price appreciation, the eighties takes it by some margin. 

“Even after adjusting for inflation, today’s generation of homebuyers may well find it unfathomable that the average home cost just shy of £67,000 back in 1980.

“While today’s buyers have had to contend with some of the lowest levels of housing affordability in history, they may well spare a thought for those who saw the cost of buying increase at such an alarming rate during their lifetime. 

“With the market currently running red hot and no end in sight despite the wider economic landscape, it will certainly be interesting to see where we finish come the end of this decade, and if the eighties will finally be relieved of the crown when it comes to the highest rate of house price appreciation in a single decade.”