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How do you beat those odds?
When most people decide to put their Wolverhampton home on the market, they assume one thing.
That it will sell.
After all, why wouldn’t it? You instruct an estate agent, the board goes up, photos appear on the portals and viewings get booked and offers made. Simples!
Except it is not.
Because what most Wolverhampton homeowners never get told is the real probability of you selling and moving. Looking at every Wolverhampton estate agent…
Over the last two years, your chances of selling and moving your Wolverhampton home have been 64.9%.
The remaining 35.1% of homes (i.e. over 3 in 10) failed to sell, withdrawing from the market unsold.
(Wolverhampton WV1/2/3/4/6/10/11).
And those chances vary massively, property to property.
At the end of the day though, whether you sell your home or not almost always comes down to two things. The marketing of your home and its pricing. Every property is unique. Its location, condition, layout, presentation and even timing all play a part and so the marketing of the home needs to be bespoke as does its asking price. Interestingly, we were asked recently if the price band of a property made any difference to the home’s saleability. One would think it shouldn’t, yet the figures tell a different story.
Let us share with you what we found about the Wolverhampton property market and the chances of getting your home sold (and moved), split down by price band.
Two Outcomes to Putting Your Wolverhampton Home on the Market. That’s it.
Let’s start with something simple. When you list your home for sale, there are only two possible outcomes:
- You exchange contracts, complete the house sale and move home.
- You withdraw the property unsold.
Everything else is noise.
So, we have looked at the data for every Wolverhampton property that has left every Wolverhampton estate agent’s book over the last two years. Then calculated how many have successfully sold (& exchanged and completed) verses how many were withdrawn and never sold.
The results are eye opening.
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If you are a Wolverhampton homeowner or landlord and considering selling your Wolverhampton property soon, you may have wondered how long it will take to find a buyer and sell.
The time it takes to sell a home varies depending on location, property type, price range, bedrooms, and market conditions. For interested Wolverhampton property owners, we have compiled the latest data and statistics for the 767 Wolverhampton homes that have sold stc in the last 3 months, split down by type (detached houses, semi-detached homes, terraced houses, and flats) and bedrooms to give you a clear picture.
The overall average is 42 days, split by type.
- Of the 166 Wolverhampton detached homes sold (stc) in the last 3 months, the average time from coming onto the market to sale agreed was 69 days.
- Of the 385 Wolverhampton semi-detached homes sold (stc) in the last 3 months, the average time from coming onto the market to sale agreed was 29 days.
- Of the 96 Wolverhampton terraced/town houses sold (stc) in the last 3 months, the average time from coming onto the market to sale agreed was 39 days.
- Of the 100 Wolverhampton flats/apartments sold (stc) in the last 3 months, the average time from coming onto the market to sale agreed was 69 days.
Note: The sales numbers don't add up precisely to the total mentioned earlier. That's because some properties fall outside the four main categories of detached, semi-detached, terraced and flat/apartments), such as mobile homes, commercial units, land, and building plots.
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The Hidden Crisis Facing the Area’s 50- and 60-Something Renters
You’ve heard of retirement.
But what about ‘rentirement’?
It’s not a typo.
It's a ticking time bomb.
There are 4,036 households in Wolverhampton, aged between their early 50s and mid-60s, renting privately, not owning the Wolverhampton homes they live in. They're heading towards retirement age with no bricks and mortar, and the implications for them, their families, and Wolverhampton's social and economic infrastructure are vast.
Let’s call this what it is: a slow-moving crisis wrapped in letting agent “to let” boards and fuelled by decades of housing policy that prioritised homeownership above all else, leaving some behind.
What is ‘Rentirement’?
“Rentirement” is a blend of the words “rent” and “retirement,” referring to those entering their mature years still renting their homes rather than owning them. It’s not a lifestyle choice for most. It’s a result of economic reality.
Unlike traditional retirees who may have cleared their mortgages and can rely on relatively low housing costs, ‘rentirees’ are staring down the barrel of paying rent every single month for the rest of their lives. And with the Wolverhampton average rent at £830 per month, that’s no small chunk of their limited retirement income.
The numbers behind the problem
The average 50- to mid-60-something single person retiring in Wolverhampton is likely to rely on a monthly income of around £1,208. That includes the state pension of £756 per month, perhaps a modest private pension topping it up. This leaves very little breathing space once rent is paid.
Let us do the maths:
£830 monthly rent over 20 years = £199,200 per household.
Multiply that by 4,036 Wolverhampton renters aged 50-65 years, and we’re looking at a combined cost of £40,198,560 a year or £804 million over the next 20 years.
That money comes either from these tenants' monthly income or savings or is subsidised by the taxpayer through housing support.
It’s not sustainable. And it’s not talked about enough.
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Are you considering moving home in Wolverhampton over the next 6 to 12 months? You may be a Wolverhampton landlord deciding whether to grow your portfolio or sell off a few properties. Or you're a Wolverhampton first-time buyer wondering if 2025 is the right time to move.
Understanding whether the current property market favours buyers or sellers is key to making the right call.
If you follow our regular Wolverhampton property updates, you’ll know one of the most reliable ways to assess the market is by looking at the percentage of homes marked as "Sold STC" or "Under Offer" compared to the total number of properties on the market.
Let’s show that in practice. For example, if say there are 500 properties on the market in a location, and 200 are under offer or Sold STC then 200 as a percentage of 500, gives us a sales percentage of 40%. It is this percentage that strongly indicates the local property market temperature and who holds the upper hand, i.e. buyers or sellers (or somewhere in between).
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As we move into early summer 2025, Wolverhampton's property market paints a bleak picture—especially for first-time buyers. Headlines scream that getting a foot on the ladder is harder than ever, and for many, that feels painfully true. With the average first-time buyer deposit in 2024 hitting a staggering £61,000, dreams of homeownership are slipping further out of reach.
Soaring rents and the ever-rising cost of living have created a perfect storm. Young buyers are told to save more, spend less, and be patient—advice that rings hollow when house prices continue climbing faster than salaries. For many in Wolverhampton and beyond, the idea of owning a home now feels more like a fantasy than a future plan.
Most people instinctively turn to the house price-to-earnings ratio (HPER) as the go-to benchmark for affordability.
In 1983, the West Midlands house price-to-earnings ratio
was 2.46; today it's 4.74.
i.e. today, the average house price is 4.74 times more than the average annual income of a first-time buyer.
On the face of it, it is a lot more expensive to buy a home today than, say, the early 1980s. After all, if house prices are nearly five times the average salary, it certainly feels more expensive than when they were almost two and a half times.
But… let's just hold on a second. Before accepting the headlines at face value, let's look under the bonnet and examine the stats.
First-time buyers with a decent credit history (and have since 2010) can obtain a 95% mortgage, meaning they would only need to save for a 5% deposit.
