Why do people buy houses in places prone to flooding?
Why do people buy houses in places prone to flooding?
Owen Paterson (Environment Secretary 2012-2014), was once asked why house building is still going on in flood plains.
Surely the question is, why people are still buying houses in flood plains?.
Why are people continuing to live in places that have suffered catastrophic floods?.
After all, plenty of property purchasers can be put off by a survey that comes back with damp or a bit of subsidence!.
You might assume that there would be a massive fall in property prices after a highly publicised event of damaging flooding.
But figures do not seem to back this up!
Take Tewkesbury for example, In June 2007, the average property value was ￡241,821. It dropped slightly to ￡238,200 in July, the month floods hit - when the average property price in England was ￡258,855.
But the average price stayed consistently about the ￡240,000 mark for the rest of the year.
Prices in Tewkesbury have dropped since, but not at a vastly disproportionate rate to the rest of England. Tewkesbury's average property is now ￡231,340, with the average value in the whole of England being ￡292,799.
In parts of Cumbria that were heavily affected by floods in 2009, and also less severely in 2005 the picture is quite similar.
In October 2009, the average property value in Cockermouth, was ￡217,243, dropping to ￡213,234 in November - when floods hit. Today the average property price is ￡232,728.
There is only so much that can be extrapolated from figures collated by property companies. There are locations within locations, and varying property sizes.
But there are estate agents in flood-hit places like Tewkesbury, Hull, Carlisle and York who suggest that although prices tend to fall, generally by about 10%, just after a flood, they remain largely unaffected in the long run.
Jonathan Harris, director at property finance broker Anderson Harris says,"People see severe flooding as a one-off event. Even if houses have been flooded before, prospective buyers may spot ways in which they can flood-proof them".
Could it be then that most of the people who live in places like Tewkesbury and Cockermouth have lived there a long time, and like living there?.
Sophia Spencer, a lettings manager at Andrews estate agent in Tewkesbury said:
"My partner bought a place in the newly developed Walton Cardiff in 2010. It's on a flood plain, but it's slightly raised. There is water nearby now, but the property's fine,"
"People outside the area seem a lot more wary about buying in Tewkesbury than people who live here. But it's a lovely market town with lots of black and white houses and tea rooms. I've lived here all my life so the floods don't put me off,"
Or maybe living somewhere picturesque for a slight discount can warrant some people taking a calculated gamble.
Stuart Chester, who owns a property in Purley on Thames, just outside Reading, says he was fully aware that the property was prone to flooding when he purchased it.
"Having a river at the bottom of the garden was a big attraction, as I like to do a bit of fishing. [And] it felt like a nice community," . He said the setting of the property, overlooking the Chilterns, and its proximity to Reading, also influenced his decision, and he thought the "inconvenience" of a flood every couple of years was worth it.
Since then his garage, garden and cellar have been flooded about 10 times, but as the house was built above the level of the great floods of 1947, it has escaped unscathed. "For a home in such a delightful setting, it's a small price to pay," he said.
Of course for many people living in a flood risk area, it comes at a far greater cost. The 48,000 homes affected by the 2007 floods cost, on average, between ￡20,000 and ￡30,000 to repair, while the cost to the economy was ￡3.2bn, according to an EA report.
About 30% of householders had to move out while repairs were carried out, with one in 10 displaced for more than a year, creating a huge disruption to home life.
Spending more on flood defences is one option. But for some people, the obvious solution is to build new properties away from areas prone to flooding.
On average, 20,000 new homes were built on the floodplains every year in England between 2001 and 2014.
Kiran Curtis, principal at KCA architects, said the basic issue is that development is generally encouraged within urban areas, rather than within green belts, with a preference for previously developed land.
"If you look at places like Sheffield, or other parts of Yorkshire, local authorities want to try and regenerate old industrial and mill towns, which are often near rivers. There is a conflict, in that for good reason they want to bring urban centres back to life, but there's a historic problem that they do flood and can lead to development within flood plains," .
In reality the nature of flooding is changing, and increasingly anyone could be at risk.
Surface water is one of the primary causes of flooding. This type of flooding is particularly problematic in urban areas where rapid runoff from impermeable surfaces (roofs, pavements), exceeds the drainage capacity of that area leading to flooding in locations that are difficult to predict so it is not just people that live on flood plains that are affected!
What are your thoughts?.