Location, location, location – why a few minutes walk can cost you over £100,000

Two well-known Norwich roads, but two very different prices. ‘Earlham Road’ and ‘Unthank Road’, both largely in the Nelson Ward in Norwich, might be only minutes away from each other, but the difference between them in the average price of a house is staggering.

Photo: Joe Bunker

Photo: Joe Bunker

According to the online estate agent ‘Zoopla’, the average house value on Earlham Road (NR2) is £337,541, compared to ‘Unthank Road (NR2)’ which is £447,078. That means there is almost an £110,000 difference between these two roads despite them being just minutes away from each other.

This is against a background of UK house prices rising at their fastest pace in 17 years, according to Nationwide. Annual house price growth rose to 13.4% in the year to June, making it the highest pace of growth since 2004.

Alexander Penny, sales manager and valuer for Norwich-based estate agent ‘Websters’, explained the reasons for the stark different in values. He described Unthank Road as the “centre or the back-bone of the golden-triangle” and went on to say it has more of an “eclectic range of café’s [and] shops.”

He added there were “quite a few larger houses off the Unthank Road” and also explained that there are “a lot more period homes” for which people “pay a bit more of a premium” compared to the 1930’s/40’s homes in Earlham Road.

Penny went on to say that numerous properties on Earlham Road still do sell for a considerable amount of money, but “only a select number of them” in comparison.

He also described how he recently sold a six-bedroom semi-detached property on Unthank Road for £930,000 which he described as “ridiculous[ly]” expensive.

‘Unthank Road’ also recently made headlines after a six-bedroomed house sold for £1.4 million making it the most expensive property sold in the city last summer.