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There is an interesting statistic in the Melksham property market that, on the face of it, doesn't seem to make much sense. The average Melksham home currently takes 61 days to sell, compared with a national average of 75 days. Yet research from Denton House Research shows that 61.7% of all UK homes that sell have already found their buyer within the first eight weeks (56 days) of being marketed.  So, if nearly two out of every three homes sell…

We often talk about the average price of a home in Melksham, but that single figure can hide more than it reveals.  A one-bedroom flat, a three-bedroom family home and a substantial four-bedroom property serve completely different buyers. Combining them into one town-wide average does not tell us how the local property ladder is shaped, or how much buyers have historically paid to move from one rung to the next.  Looking at completed property sales split down by bedroom and price in Melksham since 1 January 1995 gives us…

If you are a Melksham homeowner thinking about moving home, there appears to be some new information between what Melksham home sellers want and what buyers are actually willing to pay.   In 2026 so far, the average asking price of the homes coming onto the market in Melksham has been £354,600, yet the average price of a Melksham home that sold and completed has been £321,700. That’s a 10.2% difference.     So is this a glitch in the 2026 Melksham property market?    Looking back to the summer of 2021, we have tracked those two key numbers: the average asking price of homes coming to market in Melksham, and the average sale price of homes that exchanged and completed. The results are…

When people talk about the property market in Melksham, the conversation normally centres on house prices. Yet price is only part of the story. The size of a home matters too. A £300,000 home in one part of the country may offer significantly more space than a similarly priced home elsewhere. Even within the same town, the average floor area can vary noticeably between property types. Using newly availably floor-area data for homes across Melksham, we can compare the average size of local properties with the UK average and then…

Every few weeks, another headline appears warning that house prices are about to crash. The reason changes each time. One month it is mortgage rates. The next it is inflation. More recently, geopolitical tensions and uncertainty in the Middle East have been blamed for higher borrowing costs and weaker buyer confidence.    Yet despite all these predictions, the housing market continues to frustrate the pessimists. That does not mean the market is booming. It is not. Homes are taking longer to sell…

As an agent in the Melksham property market, I believe it is important to offer local homeowners a balanced and realistic view of both the Melksham and national property markets. Far too often in the last few years, national newspaper and social media headlines have focused on doom and gloom, creating the impression that the housing market is on the verge of collapse. Yet when you look beyond the headlines and examine the actual data, a rather different picture emerges. We are going to compare Q2 2026 against Q2 2025 and Q2 2023. Why? Well, 2025 was deemed to be a good post pandemic market and…

The Melksham property market can often feel far more active than it really is.  Every week, new for sale boards appear outside people’s homes on your street. You tell yourself, ‘They have only been in that house for a few years’, so of course, you go on to Rightmove or Zoopla to have a nosey at the pictures and check the price out. A few weeks/months later, the sold sticker goes on the board, and you get new neighbours on your street.   Yet beneath that visible activity…

For some homebuyers, the kitchen is the deal maker. For others, it is the number of bedrooms, the school catchment or the distance to the railway station. Yet for a sizeable group of buyers, the garden matters just as much as the house itself. Across Melksham and its surrounding villages, there are 368 homes with large gardens.  What is a large garden? Homes sitting on plots of between 0.25 and 0.5 acres.  That is the equivalent of roughly one quarter to one half of a football pitch, depending on the dimensions…

There is a quiet unspoken problem sitting inside the Melksham property market.   In the last two years, only 64.78% of the homes that came on the market have ended up selling.   Meanwhile, the remaining 35.22% of Melksham homes, they didn’t sell. They simply sat, drifted, reduced, and eventually disappeared from the market unsold. That gap is not usually caused by greed. It is caused by hope, emotion and, sometimes, poor advice.  For most Melksham homeowners, their home is not just bricks and mortar, bedrooms and square footage. It is where their children were raised, Christmas mornings happened, extensions were built, gardens were planted and lives were…

When Britain voted to leave the European Union on 23rd June 2016, many predicted the UK housing market was heading for trouble.  Then Chancellor, George Osborne, warned house prices could fall by as much as 18%. Economists talked about collapsing confidence, falling transactions and a potential housing market shock. There were fears that buyers would disappear, lending would tighten and uncertainty would freeze the market for years.  For Melksham homeowners, it was a worrying time, yet 10 years on, the Melksham property market tells a very different story. …

For much of the last two decades, bungalows have quietly slipped out of fashion. Overshadowed by those glossy new build developments, three storey townhouses and open plan ‘modern living’, they became seen by many as somewhere only your granny lives rather than an aspirational home move. Yet while much of the property market newspaper headlines have been chasing trends, something rather different has been happening beneath the surface in the Melksham property market with those single storey dwellings called bungalows.  Today, bungalows are starting to become some of the most sought after homes in the local Melksham property market, attracting interest from a far wider range of buyers…

Since the mid 2000s, Britain has been told the same bad news housing stories. Young people have been locked out of homeownership. Deposits are impossible to save. Mortgage rules are too strict. And ‘Generation Rent’ is now permanent. According to the narrative by the newspapers, younger generation homeownership has collapsed.  Yet quietly, without much fanfare, the latest Census data paints a very different picture in the UK, and especially in Wiltshire.  In 2011, 44.1% of Wiltshire residents under the age of 35 owned their own home. By 2021, that figure had risen to 55.0%. …

Across the UK and here in Melksham, the property market remains surprisingly active despite the issues at home and abroad. House prices are steady, buyers are still being selective, and the market itself is evolving.   While the headline is eye catching, this is not simply a story of rising numbers of homes for sale. It is a market slowly shifting shape in real time. Whether you are thinking of moving, actively searching, or simply keeping an eye on Melksham house prices, the first third of 2026 has revealed several important trends homeowners should not ignore. So, let me…

If you are a homeowner or landlord in Melksham and thinking about selling in the coming months, one question tends to rise above all others. How long is this going to take?  It is a fair question. Moving home is not just about price, it is about timing, certainty, and momentum. And while every property has its own story, the latest Melksham data does give us a very clear starting point.  Looking at homes that have sold subject to contract this year, the average Melksham property is taking…

For decades, the flat was the natural starting point for many first-time home buyers. The first rung of the ladder. The affordable option. The stepping stone to something bigger. For landlords, it was a dependable investment. For first-time buyers, it was often the only way in.   That logic has not disappeared, yet it is starting to crack. Across the UK, there is a growing disconnect between flats and the rest of the housing market. It is not dramatic enough to make daily headlines, yet it is persistent enough to…

There is a growing shift taking place in the Melksham property market, and it is not one that can be ignored. While much of the national conversation focuses on house prices and interest rates, a quieter yet more revealing metric is beginning to stand out, how long properties are taking to sell.  The average Melksham home is taking 64 days to sell (the national average is 77 days). Yet not every home in Melksham sells.   Over the last 12 months, for all agents in Melksham combined, only 63.1% of homes that left estate agents’ books,…

Are you contemplating moving home in Melksham during the next 9 months?     You may be a Melksham landlord wondering whether you should grow your portfolio or sell off a few properties? Or you're a Melksham first-time buyer considering if now is the best time to move?    Understanding whether the current property market favours buyers or sellers is key to making the right call. If you follow my regular Melksham property market updates, you will know one of the most dependable ways to assess the property market is by observing the percentage of homes marked as "Sold STC" or "Under Offer" compared to the total number of properties on the market.     Let me show that in practice. Let us say there are 600 properties…

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest something rather unexpected. After years of worsening affordability, the picture has begun to improve. Wages have risen faster than house prices since 2021, nudging the headline affordability ratios in the right direction. On the face of it, that feels like progress.  Across the country, the average home now costs around 7.6 times the average earnings, much higher than the 2009 figure of 6.4 yet down from the 2021 peak of 9 times. That is still above the long-term “five times earnings”…

Over the last few weeks, there has been a growing narrative in the national press suggesting that the housing ladder is becoming increasingly difficult to climb. Much of this centres around the widening gap between smaller and larger homes, with many commentators suggesting that homeowners are becoming “stuck” and unable to move up.   There is some truth in that argument.   However, when you look at the Melksham property market in detail, the picture is not quite as straightforward.    The Changing Price Gap in Melksham …

When you have had your property on the market for a while, many sellers eventually face the same difficult decision: whether their asking price needs adjusting to reignite buyer interest. The reason why, over the past few years, the number of homes available across the SN12 postcode has increased.   In February 2021 there were around 217 properties for sale. By February 2026 that figure had increased to 252. With more homes competing for Melksham buyers’ attention, pricing strategy has become one of the most important factors in achieving a successful sale.  Understanding How Melksham Buyers Search    Most buyers begin their search on the major property…

We often discuss the Melksham property market through house prices.   Yet long before price comes a home’s character. And long before its character comes its age.   Every town or city has its own housing fingerprint. Not just streets and postcodes, but a layered history of building booms, social change, and shifting design. Melksham is no different.   Wiltshire has 211,438 homes, according to the Valuation Office. Breaking them down by period built reveals a pattern that becomes even more interesting when compared to the national picture.    Pre-1919   …

When most homeowners decide to put their Melksham home on the market, they assume one thing.  The chances their home will sell are very good.  After all, why wouldn’t it? You ask an estate agent to place your home on the market, the board goes up, pictures of your home appear on the portals and viewings subsequently get booked and offers made.  Except it is not. Looking at every Melksham estate agent…  Over the last two years, the chances of selling your  Melksham home and moving have been 64.7%  The remaining 35.3% of homes failed to sell, withdrawing from the market unsold.  (Melksham SN12).  And those chances vary immensely, property to property.  Whether you end up selling your home…

The property market is frequently misunderstood, especially amid dramatic news stories. Here’s what Melksham homeowners need to know to avoid costly traps. To understand the property market, it is important to consider the broader context.  Nationally, house price growth is treading water at 2.5% a year, and there were 663k UK homes available for sale in the month of January, compared to the three-year pre-COVID average level of 559k. That said, homes are still selling. In fact, 9.9% more South West properties were sold in January 2026 compared…

In early 2023, property forecasters predicted a significant UK housing downturn over the next two years, citing rising interest rates following Liz Truss's departure. Halifax expected an 8% drop, Savills predicted a 10% drop, and Nomura Bank forecast up to a 15% drop.  While these gloomy forecasts successfully grabbed headlines and generated clicks, the actual market data three years later tells a completely different story.   According to the Land Registry, the reality has been far more resilient. UK house prices are 3.93% higher today…

If you are a Melksham homeowner or landlord thinking about selling your property, one of the first questions you will ask is simple, how long will it take?  The honest answer is that it depends. Location, property type, number of bedrooms, price point and market conditions all play a part. To give Melksham homeowners some clarity, I have analysed the latest data from the 88 Melksham homes, building plots, commercial units and mobile homes etc, that have sold subject to contract in the last three months. This covers Melksham town centre plus a one-mile radius. …

What this means for Melksham homeowners     In 2025, 24.77% of agreed property sales in Melksham did not complete, and this is more important than many homeowners think.    In Melksham, where sales chains are often longer and buyers are more sensitive to price, this has a bigger impact. Agreeing a sale has never meant a guarantee, since properties are sold ‘subject to contract’. Still, it may surprise you that nearly a quarter of agreed sales in the town fall through. That’s a high number by any standard.    To put that percentage into context, 132 Melksham households lost…

2025 was not a great one for the UK property market. Budgets, wars, economic and political uncertainty all conspired to derail what was otherwise a steady gently upward trajectory. Although, as ever, the market remained remarkably robust, the increase in supply from pressurised sellers compounded with a nervousness from potential buyers, leading to a glut in properties for sale. A slower sales cycle, significantly prompted by a reluctance to buy ahead of what could have been a ground-shaking November budget,…

As we enter a new year, many local homeowners are facing a familiar question. Should they bring their Melksham home to market in January, or wait until the late spring?  In recent conversations I have had with Melksham buyers, sellers, and buy-to-let landlords in the run-up to Christmas, one question kept cropping up in relation to that decision to move or not.    ‘What will happen to Melksham house prices in 2026?’    Some buyers, especially first-time buyers, worry they are about to purchase just before a potential downturn. Some homeowners want to…

As we hit the third week of December, the Melksham property market does slow down ready for the big day. It’s at this time of year, I like to work out the total value of every home in Melksham, and how that value has changed since 2010 (as that was the bottom of the market after the Credit Crunch). During those years, Melksham has gone through market cycles, mortgage booms, periods of national uncertainty, political shifts, and economic swings. Yet…

The Chancellor’s Autumn Budget has finally arrived after months of rumour, leaked ideas and speculation. Many households in Melksham had braced themselves for a sweeping new annual tax on homes above £500,000. That proposal has now been dropped, which removes the biggest cloud that had been hanging over the local market. Instead, the Government has opted for a more focused approach by introducing a new high value council tax surcharge that only applies to properties valued above £2 million. Alongside…

If you listened to the doom merchants, you would think first-time buyers (FTB) in Melksham had no chance at all. According to the loudest voices, buying a first home is impossible, the ladder has been pulled up, and the only people who buy their first homes today are lottery winners or those with wealthy parents. The story is always the same. Prices up, wages squeezed, and doors slammed shut. Yet when you scratch beneath the surface, the facts tell a…

The Autumn Budget delivered the expected changes to housing and taxation, although the impact will be felt more in sentiment than in immediate cost. The centrepiece was the new annual levy on homes worth more than £2m, due from 2028. Owners of £2m plus homes will pay more and the rest of us will pay more through the wider tax system. None of it was a surprise. The charges are £2,500 a year for homes above £2m and £7,500 for…

“From uncertainty to relief” says Richard in his post-budget update for Melksham homeowners and with much discussion around taxes there was no nasty surprises about the property market. However, there were two key takeaways from the budget which Richard delves into for you. If you would like to discuss the marketing of your home, reach out to Nigel and the team. https://youtu.be/V-zO6BtVF3g  

A study of this year’s property market and what will happen in 2026? With only a few weeks to go before the end of the year, as a Melksham estate and letting agent, I wanted to share what has happened in both the UK and Melksham property markets in 2025, analysing the trends for Melksham homeowners, home buyers and landlords alike… and then compare them to previous years. All statistics for each year are up to 16 November (to ensure…

We are delighted to announce our Christmas competition is BACK! We have once again teamed with our good friend Phil from I.D Newman Butchers over the road to give one lucky winner the chance to win a £100 Christmas Hamper. The competition runs from 18th November 2025 to 18th December 2025 with one lucky winner being selected at random and announced on social media shortly after. Our Question: What is your favourite Christmas song of all time? To enter, head…

In Richard's latest property market comment, he explains how a bumper Christmas could be on the cards for the housing market and especially after seeing recent reports of the market making a small rise in the last month. Watch his latest video to stay informed and if you are thinking of selling now or in the New Year, reach out to the team. We'd be happy to chat this through with you. https://youtu.be/BOmwlrm2Has

Some homes in Melksham fly off the market within weeks. Others sit for months, attract only a handful of viewings, then quietly disappear from the portals, unsold. The difference isn’t luck, it’s sellability. Would it surprise you that of the 10.94 million homes that have left UK estate agents books since January 2019, only 6.33 million (or 57.86%) sold and moved. The other 4.61 million came off the market unsold. This is the extent of the sellability issue. Looking more…

If you walk down almost any Melksham road or street, you will see the quiet signs of life playing out behind the front doors. Families growing. Kids leaving home. Kitchens are being refitted for the second or third time. Yet somewhere in that rhythm, every homeowner starts to feel it again ... the gentle itch to move. Nationally, that cycle is longer than most people think. Across the UK, there are around 28.5 million households, of which roughly 17.7 million are owner-occupied. On…

Yet never did. Here is why... If you have ever thought about selling your Melksham home, you will know how tempting it can be to stretch the asking price. After all, it is your biggest tax-free asset, and those extra few thousand pounds can feel like a sensible cushion. Yet in the Melksham property market, ambition can sometimes cost more than it earns. Over the past five and a half years, 1,506 Melksham homeowners have come away from the market…

As the Melksham property market shifts, more homeowners are facing the decision of when and by how much to adjust their asking prices. The choice can feel difficult, but in today's climate, it is often the difference between attracting a buyer or sitting unsold for months. The supply of homes for sale in Melksham has climbed sharply, from 188 in August 2022 to 258 in August 2025. With the increase in stock now available across SN12, the competition for buyers' attention is far…

In this month’s property market report from Richard, he talks about the current state of play in the housing market – from rising new listings to the uncertainty surrounding November’s Budget. Watch the video below to hear his full take on where things stand and what might be coming next. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWo1gmiEH3s

The typical first-time buyer home in Melksham costs £259,377, which is a lot of money in anyone's book. For years, the housing affordability debate has been framed in terms of house prices compared to average incomes. That makes a neat headline, but it isn't how first-time buyers think. When you are weighing up your first home in Melksham, the question isn't "how many times my salary is the house worth?”. It’s “what slice of our take-home pay will the mortgage swallow…

The Numbers Every Melksham Homeowner Must See If you’re a Melksham homeowner or landlord thinking about selling in the next couple of years, the question on your mind is simple. How long will it take to find a buyer? New data on the 143 Melksham homes sold in the last 3 months has revealed some striking differences depending on the type of property and the number of bedrooms. On average, it takes 48 days to find a buyer. But dig…

With the summer now appearing to be behind us, we turn our attention to the Autumn property market and here's Richard to talk about where we are today and help guide us with what to expect in the months ahead. If you are considering a sale in 2027, you may want to start discussions sooner with your local friendly estate agent. https://youtube.com/shorts/oUetLL490l4?si=4KdvHYbwLgpOeCZc

Are you considering moving home in Melksham during the next 6 to 12 months? You may be a Melksham landlord deciding whether to grow your portfolio or sell off a few properties. Or you're a Melksham first-time buyer wondering if now is the right time to move. Understanding whether the current property market favours buyers or sellers is key to making the right call. If you follow my regular Melksham property updates, you'll know one of the most reliable ways…

A step-by-step guide for Melksham homeowners You want more space. The kitchen bleeds into homework time. The spare room became an office, then a dumping ground. The obvious answer used to be to extend. Yet over the last few years, the sums have changed. This is an article for Melksham homeowners who are weighing up an extension against moving. It gives you the maths, the practical snags, and a simple checklist so you can make a confident decision for your…

In the summer of 2020, Melksham's property market, like the rest of the UK, roared back to life after weeks of pandemic lockdown. It was a strange moment in history. The pause in the British housing market had created a bottleneck of pent-up demand, and when the doors reopened, homes that might have taken months to sell were suddenly attracting multiple offers in a matter of days. Average asking prices jumped sharply, fueled by a combination of limited supply, government…

If you’re a homeowner in Melksham thinking about selling, brace yourself for a bit of uncomfortable truth. There is a growing gap in our town between what Melksham home sellers want and what buyers are actually willing to pay. And the evidence for this is laid out, month after month, in cold, hard numbers. Since the summer of 2020, we’ve been tracking two key numbers: the average asking price of homes coming to market in Melksham, and the average sale price of homes that…

Once mocked as middle-of-the-road suburbia, Melksham's semi-detached homes have quietly become one of the strongest performers in the property market. Looking at Melksham house price data has given the humble semi the last laugh, with an astounding average price increase of 437% over the past three decades. This impressive rise in house prices has made the humble semis a wise investment and underscores their enduring appeal in the broader British housing market. This article will examine the appeal of semi-detached…

Here's Nigel with his latest update for the property market in August 2025. With the Bank of England cutting the interest rates this month, what is in store for those looking to make their next move or step onto the property ladder for the first time? If you would like to discuss the local property market in Melksham and/or selling your home this summer, reach out and book your valuation online.