REVEALED: True costs of buying property on the Fylde coast

Fylde coast estate agents say property values in Lytham have skyrocketed, while price tags in other areas have remained relatively unchanged for a number of years. There are currently 14 houses for sale on the Fylde coast which will set buyers back more than £1m.They include a five-bedroom detached house on Carr Lane, Bryning, which comes complete with a home cinema, swimming pool, four acres of green land and its very own lake, and a period family home with its own private gym on Seafield Road, Lytham.Lytham stands out as the coast’s millionaire hotspot, with 10 properties boasting price tags of £1m or more. Fairhaven has two £1m houses up for sale, both on the Inner Promenade, and Poulton has one, on Hardhorn Road.There are currently 3,863 properties for sale across the Fylde Coast, according to Rightmove.Blackpool, Thornton, Cleveleys and Fleetwood currently have no £1m houses on the market.Paul Crossley, managing director of Kenrick’s Estate Agents, said: “The most expensive houses you will find in Blackpool will be on North Park Drive, and that would probably be around to £850,000 or £900,000 mark. But I don’t think there are any properties over £1m.“In Lytham there are houses that are often sold well in excess of £1m.“Some of these people will buy a property and often it is in pristine condition, and they’ll go on to spend even more money on it.“What then happens is there’s a massive uplift in the quality of the property, and it shows companies on the market that people want to live on that street.“Lytham is a vibrant town and you only have to look at the properties they sell to see that the prices are high because it is a desirable location to live.”In the past six months, the average cost of a house in Lytham was £413,083, according to property website Zoopla.This is more than three times the average cost of a house in Blackpool, at £123,622, Average house prices in St Annes ranged around £182,780, while people looking to buy in Thornton and Cleveleys were most likely to see a price tag of around £146,147.Fleetwood had the cheapest house prices at an average of £121,595.Wayne Stevenson, manager of the St Annes branch of Leftmove, said: “In Lytham, of course, house prices are much more expensive. They have sky-rocketed, whereas elsewhere they have not changed for a number of years.“It’s a desirable place to live. We have just taken on a two-bedroom flat on Westby Street for £160,000, which initially I thought was quite expensive, but we have already had an offer on it. It just shows that, within reason, people will pay what they need to pay.“It’s seen as a very good area to live in and there are good schools around here.“The travel links are good. New bars are opening and it’s got a really good social life.“A lot of people who move from Blackpool to St Annes see St Annes as a stepping stone to Lytham.”In 2016, Blackpool appeared fifth in a list of areas with the weakest house price growths, with average prices failing to reach £123,947, according to Halifax.Other poorly rated areas included Aberdeen, Falkirk and Inverness in Scotland, and Bangor in Northern Ireland.Mr Stevenson said: “In Blackpool there is a lot of people coming from down South and investing, because you get a lot for your money and the yields are high. You can buy a three bedroom house for £80,000. Blackpool is one of the most affordable places to buy a house in the county in terms of wages. It’s so busy we have just opened a second office in South Shore. It’s a very buoyant market.“It is a benefit for people who are looking to get on the property ladder.“I think the prices are creeping up. You only need to look at the amount of estate agents there are in Blackpool. There is so much business to go around.”Meanwhile, Richard Wilson, of Richard Wilson Estate Agents, said that his company had seen an approximately five per cent increase in house prices in the past 12 months.He said: “Other areas have performed reasonably, but not as good as the Lytham area. There was a time when we would have said that both Lytham and St Annes, where there are a lot of bungalows, were places where people come to retire.“But there has been a few developments over the years that have attracted some younger blood, which is what people want in any town.“All you have to do is look at areas a mile outside Lytham and St Annes and you see they haven’t perfomed as well, but they are more denseley populated. It is a different price bracket. Every area caters for a certain type of buyer.”

Guildford has more £1m homes than Wales

Almost 770,000 households across Britain are now classed as “property millionaires” according to Zoopla.Latest figures show there are 768,553 homes valued at £1m at least, or 2.7 per cent of the nation’s housing stock.The figure is a huge 22.95 per cent more than August 2016 when the market was last analysed - an increase of 143,476 properties. Not surprisingly London has the biggest proportion of million pound homes - more than half the total figure at 430,720.Guildford in Surrey was identified as the top million pound property hotspot outside the capital - there are more in that one town than across the whole of Wales. Of the top 10 hotspots in the UK, only Edinburgh is not in the South of England. The North West is fifth in the regional list - behind London, the South East, the East ofEngland and the South West - with 12,552 property millionaires.

Just £2.5m!

A snip at just £2.5m, it’s Fylde’s most expensive home

Take a visit through the keyhole of a five bedroom detached house on Carr Lane, Bryning.At £2.5m the mortgage repayments will set you back morethan £11,700-a-month.But for that you get:++ A swimming pool with bar and BBQ ++ A large lake and ornamental pond ++ A detached three bedroom ancillary annexe ++ A detached triple garage with study ++ A home cinema, bar and entertainment room ++ Five bedrooms, including a master bedroom with two storey en-suite ++ Four reception rooms ++ All surrounded by four acres of land

From £25,000 in Blackpool ... to £4m in Ribble ValleyIt will get you a one-bed flat in central London, or a veritable mansion in the Lancashire countryside.But having a million pounds to spend on a home is not quite as rare as it used to be, according to the latest figures.If you’re one of the lucky house hunters with a seven-figure budget, the choice is greater than it has ever been.There are currently 117 houses for sale in the county which will set you back more than £1m.They range from three in the £4m-plus category, to five for a basic £1m. And one of them, a £2m snip in much sought-after Lytham, is only semi-detached.Not bad for a county where average house prices are just £168,000 and where there are currently almost a thousand for sale at less than £60,000.One local estate agent says it’s not so much prices soaring as stiff competition prompting buyers to offer nearer to the asking price.Charles Forshaw, of Nationwide, said: “The difference is that valuations aren’t necessarily going up, but people are achieving closer to the asking price and things are moving quicker. That has a positive impact on the sales figures.”He said 18 months to two years ago potential buyers would seek to negotiate or offer 10 to 15 per cent off the asking price. But now the market has changed.He continued: “Now, because there is more competition in the market place, buyers are having to pay closer to the asking price which has an impact on the final figures achieved.”The hottest properties in Lancashire this spring range from a castle-style mansion to a Tudor style manor house, a Grade II listed historic property to modern dream homes. The three with the biggest price tag right now are at Quernmore near Lancaster, and Stonyhurst and Simonstone in the Ribble Valley. They all have asking prices of more than £4m.Meanwhile tomorrow the former health spa Brooklands near Garstang, now a private residence, goes to auction with Pugh in Manchester, with a guide price of at least £1.6m.The country mansion on Calder House Lane in Barnacre boasts mature grounds, a helipad, seven bedrooms, a leisure suite with swimming pool, hydropool, sauna and steam room and an entertainment suite with cinema and games rooms and bar.According to property portal Zoopla the average selling price for a house in Lancashire in the past year was a more modest £163,892, with house values rising by only 2.47 per cent. The current average value is £168,661.At the bottom end of the market it is possible to purchase properties for £60,000 with 990 currently listed under that figure in Lancashire by Rightmove.Prices vary considerably across the county which impacts on average house price figures. Homes in the Fylde Coast, Ribble Valley and the villages of West Lancashire are some of the priciest.But in Blackpool, according to Rightmove, a three-bedroom house in Haig Road went up for auction last week at just £25,000. There are a plethora of houses and flats up for sale for less than £50,000.Parts of Blackpool are being regenerated with new affordable homes.Foxhall Village (pictured above) has new modern homes for sale at £115,000, or cheaper with Help To Buy.Move further east in the county and in Accrington a two bedroomed mid-terraced property will soon be offered for auction at £25,000.