Stage is set for housing recovery in Stratford-upon-Avon

Balloons at the ready: Stratford-upon-Avon is gearing up to celebrate the birthday of its most famous son, William Shakespeare. On April 23 it will be 451 years since the birth of The Bard, and organisers are hoping that the party does not fall flat after last year's blowout. In 2014, to mark the 450th anniversary, Stratford hosted a series of street parties, special performances and exhibitions that, according to local officials, saw its annual visitor numbers swell to about 4m.

"Shakespeare is obviously a big draw for us and he is absolutely central to the character of Stratford," says Nic Fulcher of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which helps the town stage cultural events throughout the year, including the annual birthday parade, due to take place on April 25. Held every year since 1824, the procession zigzags its way past the house where Shakespeare was born and his old school, before finishing at his tomb at Holy Trinity church. Last year, the procession featured a giant birthday cake and was led - confusingly - by a 20ft puppet of Lady Godiva, the 11th-century noblewoman who, according to legend, once rode naked through the streets of Coventry, but didn't appear in any of Shakespeare's plays.

No Godiva this year, but the cake is back, freshly decorated to mark the (slightly more fitting) 600th anniversary of Henry V's victory at Agincourt.

The sense of merriment has been mirrored in the local housing market. "2014 proved to be a fantastic year for Stratford," says Paul Houghton-Brown of Hamptons International, "It was easily the best for years - since 2009."

According to figures from Knight Frank, average property prices in Shakespeare's birthplace fell almost 20 per cent after the 2008 crash. Only now are they achieving parity. "This year started a little slowly, perhaps," says Houghton-Brown, "but we had a very strong end to February and March. Confidence is very high at the moment."

While prices haven't rocketed, inquiries and transaction levels are up and Houghton-Brown says Hamptons is achieving asking prices on about 98 per cent of the properties it sells locally.

So what has all this to do with Shakespeare? Very little.

"We have a very small number of American buyers who are here because of what you might call 'Shakespeare traction'," says James Way of Knight Frank, "but it's not a factor when people are deciding where to live."

Instead, Way cites the town's more pragmatic draws: good housing stock, good schools and good amenities.

Houghton-Brown agrees. "We get a lot of downsizers moving to the old town [area]," he says, "people who perhaps are getting older and ... want to be within walking distance of the shops and everything Stratford has to offer."

In the main, such buyers tend to seek three- to four-bedroom Georgian or Victorian town houses, typically on sale for between £500,000 and £800,000.

Hamptons is selling a five-bedroom home on School Lane with a large garden that runs down to the river Avon for £900,000. On the other side of the Avon, Knight Frank is selling Welcombe Manor, a recently refurbished, six-bedroom family home, with a tennis court and various outbuildings set in more than 10 acres of mature gardens and woodland for £3.5m.

Anyone looking for a more authentic Shakespearean-era property might need to look further afield. In the village of Snitterfield, a short drive to the north of Stratford, Hamptons is selling a five-bedroom, Grade II-listed Tudor house for £745,000.

Yet demand for low-beamed Tudor cottages is not as strong as might be imagined, says Way. "Every generation gets taller," he points out.

According to Hamptons, between 30 and 40 per cent of Stratford's buyers are from central London, where cooling house prices have made estate agents in other provincial towns somewhat fidgety. But a swath of new developments in Stratford suggests there is optimism in the local market.

Volume developers Taylor Wimpey and Bovis are both working on projects in the town, as is Bloor Homes, which is building a major 800-house development in nearby Shottery with a school and retail space called West Stratford.

In November, the local council finally announced that the £30m redevelopment of Stratford's town centre would go ahead after the site was purchased by the development and investment company UK & European. Construction, which has stalled several times in the past, is now due to start later this year.

The new project, called Stratford Town Square, will comprise 50,000 sq ft of retail space, a cinema, leisure facilities and a new pedestrianised area.

"The new development will be a boon to the town," says Way, who adds that the only thing that could dampen spirits in the local housing sector this year would be if the flood of new homes outstrips demand. "Other than that," he says, "I think we've seen the dark clouds come and go."

? The town of Stratford-upon-Avon has a permanent population of about 25,500

? According to police figures, 200 crimes were committed in Stratford in February, up from 191 for the same month last year

? Stratford is close to some excellent independent and state schools, including The Croft prep school and King Edward VI grammar, where Shakespeare was a pupil

What you can buy for ...

£500,000 An Elizabethan or Jacobean cottage in a nearby village

£1m An Edwardian four- to five-bedroom property on Warwick Road

£3m A six- or seven-bedroom house on Tiddington Road

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