A Decade of Orchard

Since 2006, Orchard has risen to become one of the area’s most successful and reputable estate agents. Orchard was founded on a simple belief: to offer unrivalled levels of personal service to our valued clients. Ten years on, that ethos remains at the core of our business.

A lot can happen in ten years, especially when it includes a global financial crisis. We look back on how our local property markets have evolved and grown. There certainly hasn’t been much time for standing still, with local house prices having increased by 50% and 12,000 homes changing hands. We have enjoyed being part of the journey.

Local markets outperform south east

We all love talking about house prices. This is particularly the case when our local markets outperform a variety of benchmarks. Our analysis shows that, on average, our local markets (Bagshot, Camberley, Frimley, Frimley Green and Lightwater) have achieved a 50% increase in house prices in the last decade. This outperformed average price growth nationally (16%), in the south east (29%) and is just above the Surrey county average too (46%).

House price performance has been ahead of other investment returns

Houses have represented a safe investment for your money over the last ten years, outperforming other forms of investment. The 50% price increase in our local housing markets compares with 21% price growth in the UK equity market (as measured by the FTSE 100). The comparable increase in inflation (CPI) over this period has been 28%.

Local housing markets bounced back strongly from the global financial crisis

This strong performance is set against the backdrop of a turbulent decade including, of course, the global financial crisis. At its worst, UK economic growth fell by 2.2% in a single quarter in mid-2008. House prices suffered too. Emerging from this, the recovery in the London and south east housing markets has been remarkable. Since 2009, which represented the low point in the local housing market, prices have increased by 38%. The rise in London house prices has been even more significant (60%).