House sale gains exceed £100k for first time

Homeowners who purchased a property over the past 20 years and sold in 2022 typically made a gross profit of more than £100,000, research claims.

Analysis by Hamptons has found that double-digit house price growth in 2022 has meant that homeowners cashing in made record gains last year.

The average seller in England and Wales who bought a property within the past two decades and sold in 2022 made a gross profit of £108,000, up from £96,220 in 2021, according to the research.

A record 94% of sellers sold their property in 2022 for more than they paid for it, having owned for an average of 8.9 years, Hamptons said.

In percentage terms, the average seller in England & Wales sold their home for 52% more than they bought it for, the agent claims.

There are now 173 – around half of local authorities  - across England & Wales where the average homeowner made a six-figure gain when selling their home.  This figure has risen from 116 in 2021.  

The majority – or 87% - of these local authorities were located in the South of England, down from 94% in 2021.

The uplift in the average amount of money people have made on their property has been driven by more larger homes being sold in 2022, Hamptons suggests.

While detached homes made up 19% of sales in 2022, they accounted for 35% of properties selling for six figure gains in 2022.  

The average detached home was sold for £186,940 or 61% more than its original purchase price, 3.3 times the average gain made on a flat (£57,080) in 2022.

While the percentage gain made by house sellers increased between 2021 and 2022, weaker house price growth meant that it stayed the same for flat sellers.  The average house seller in 2022 made a 57% gain on their home up from 51% in 2021, compared to 29% for flat owners in both 2022 and 2021. 

Typically, these larger homes have also been owned for longer and have therefore benefited from additional house price inflation, boosting the average gain. 

A quarter of homes sold in 2022 had been bought 15 to 20 years ago, up from one in five in 2019.  

Of all the flats sold in 2022, just 34% had been bought within the last five years, down from 41% in 2020, due to weaker demand for flats.

The average flat owner who sold in 2022 bought their home 8.7yrs ago, up from 8.3 years in 2021, 2020 and 2019, according to the research.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: “While there are a number of uncertainties weighing on the market, even if prices do fall this year, it’s likely that over 90% of sellers will still sell at a profit. 

“The other 10% will mostly be flat owners who bought in the last five or so years.  The shift away from recent mortgaged homeowners selling cheaper homes towards older, more affluent homeowners selling more expensive homes also looks set to push up gains among sellers again this year.”