Cheltenham vs Gloucester.. the tale of two very different property markets

I was talking to one of my landlords from Stroud the other week, when we were looking over a few properties that he was considering to buy in Cheltenham or Gloucester. As we have offices in both places, I was able to discuss the two areas in depth. We started to notice an interesting pattern in the house prices between the two. Cheltenham has always been a more expensive town to buy in comparison to Gloucester, but depending on what type of property you buy, there are some fascinating differences.

A few weeks ago, we said that the average value of a property in Gloucester was £204,000, compared to Cheltenham ‘s of £297,900 (making Cheltenham 46% higher). However, when you look deeper, things become quite interesting between the two places. Detached houses in Cheltenham are 42% higher than Gloucester’s (£471,800 to £310,600) ,flats are even higher being 55% more expensive in Cheltenham than they are in Gloucester (£184,100 to £118,400), terraced houses are even more expensive in Cheltenham having and average value of £235,700 compared to Gloucester’s £143,700, making Cheltenham’s terraced houses on average 63% more expensive.  Finally, semi-detached houses are 44% more expensive in Cheltenham compared to Gloucester (£271,100 to £187,100).

So if you look at the individual property types (i.e. detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats) the one thing which struck me was that whilst overall the average property in Cheltenham is 46% more expensive that Gloucester in some types, including terraced and flats, they are considerably more at 50 to 60%  more expensive.  Well after investigating, it transpires that in Gloucester there are 20.2% proportionally more detached houses than Cheltenham and 21.3% more semi-detached houses. However, on the other side of the coin, Cheltenham has proportionally 59% more flats and apartments compared to Gloucester.

As Gloucester has a lot more expensive detached and semi-detached houses and a shortage of apartments, this means the overall average property price is driven up in Gloucester over Cheltenham. These differing housing provisions in the two places just goes to show that you need to know your marketplace and decide which is the right place for your money. If you are an existing landlord or one who is thinking of become one in Cheltenham and Gloucester, don’t hesitate to pop by our offices on either Cheltenham  or Gloucester or send me an email to neil.west@belvoirlettings.com