The latest housing market projection for Bridgend County has been published ahead of submission to the Welsh Government (pdf).
One headline finding is that Bridgend needs an additional 2,834 social and affordable homes to meet local demand by 2033 (once the turnover of existing properties is taken into account). The majority of these are needed in the Bridgend town area, Pyle/Kenfig Hill/Cornelly and Porthcawl.
Additionally, just under 40% of the expected demand is for one-bedroom homes and flats.
Surveyed housing organisations and charities wanted social housing to be the highest priority, along with increased supported housing. Open-market housing should be a lower priority, while there were mixed views on prioritising improvements to existing housing stock.
Other key findings include:
- 71% of households in Bridgend County either own their home outright or via a mortgage. A further 15% rented privately, while 14% rented socially. Porthcawl has the highest levels of home ownership and the Pyle/Kenfig Hill area the lowest. The Ogmore Valley had the highest proportion of private tenants (21%).
- Median property values in Bridgend were £190,000 in 2022 – a 9% increase on 2021. There’s an expectation that house prices will stabilise or grow slowly. The lowest median property prices were in the Garw Valley (£110,000) and the highest in Porthcawl (£315,000).
- Private rents are generally higher in the south of the county than in the Valleys. However, in the Garw Valley the report says that one and four-bedroom private rents were slightly lower than equivalent social rents.
- The proportion of properties liable for council tax that are second homes (0.1%) is well below the all-Wales average (1.8%).
- There are around 1,100 long-term empty homes in the county. Most of these are privately-owned, but there’s a big spike in empty social homes in the Ogmore Valley.
