The Solihull Love Affair with its 4,800 Terraced Houses...

I have done some research that I hope you will find of interest, on terraced houses a particular favourite of mine.

In architectural terms a terraced or townhouse is a style of housing which was introduced in the late 1600’s in the UK, where a row of symmetrical/identical houses share their side walls. The first terraced houses were actually built by Monsieur Barbon around St. Paul’s Cathedral as part of the rebuilding process after the Great Fire of London in 1666.  Interestingly, it was the French that invented the terraced house around 1610-15 in the Le Marais district of Paris with its planned squares and properties with identical facades. However, it was the 1730’s in the UK, that the terraced/townhouse came into its own in London and of course in Bath with the impressive Royal Crescent.

However, we are in Solihull, not Bath, so the majority of our Solihull terraced houses were built in the Victorian era, built on the back of the Industrial Revolution.  With people flooding into the towns and cities for work in Victorian times, the terraced house offered decent livable accommodation away from the slums. In actual fact the majority of Victorian Solihull terraced houses are based on standard design of a ‘posh’ front room, a back room (where the family lived day to day) and scullery off that.  Off the scullery, a door to a rear yard, whilst upstairs, three bedrooms (the third straight off the second).  As an interesting fact the law was changed in 1875 with the Public Health Act and each house had to have 108 ft of livable space per main room, running water, it’s own outside toilet and rear access to allow the toilet waste to be collected.

It was the 1960’s and 70’s when inside toilets and bathrooms were installed, often in that third bedroom or an extension off the scullery.  Since the 1980’s gas central heating and replacement Upvc double glazing have been installed in every home.  

Looking at the make up of all the properties in Solihull, some very interesting numbers appear.  Of the 52,184 properties in Solihull …

17,212 are Detached properties (32.9%)

22,234 are Semi Detached properties (42.6%)

4,896 are Terraced / Town House properties (9.3%)

7,833 are Apartment/ Flat’s (15.0%)

And quite noteworthy, there are 9 mobile homes, representing 0.02% of all property in Solihull. 

Looking at the values, the average price paid for a Solihull terraced house in 1995 was £63,240 and the latest set of figures released by the land Registry states that today that figure stands at £243,980, a rise of 286% - not bad when you consider apartments in Solihull in the same time frame have only risen by 151%.

But then a lot of buy to let landlords and first time buyers I speak to think the Victorian terraced house is expensive to maintain.  I recently read a report from English Heritage that stated maintaining a typical Victorian terraced house over thirty years is around sixty percent cheaper than building and maintaining a modern house -  fascinating don’t you think!

Don’t dismiss the humble terraced house – especially in Solihull!  For more tips and advice on the Solihull property market please email me on jane.morcom@centrickproperty.co.uk