Paying a high price for the ultimate city lifestyle
08-30-2015
How much are househunters are prepared to shell out to become London commoners
Greenwich Park with views towards the City.
By Caroline McGhie
London’s parks and commons are as central to the identity of the capital as the Underground or the Thames, attracting tourists and home owners in their droves and supplying the city with much needed breathing space.
These leafy retreats are not just the preserve of dog walkers, cyclists and deer, however. They meet a cultural need too, providing venues for open air concerts and theatre in the summer, Christmas markets and ice skating in the winter. Tonight, for example, the sounds of Gershwin and Vaughan Williams will fill Kensington Park Gardens.
For those who live just the other side of the hedgerow this is the ultimate London existence. Step out of the front door on to a bustling street of shops and restaurants or slip through the back gate into the wild heathland of Wimbledon Common or the landscaped surrounds of Holland Park.
However, residents pay a high price for the privilege of access to green space.
Albert Court, on the market with W A Ellis.
The average cost of a home within a stone’s throw of a London park or common is three times the typical price of a property elsewhere in the capital. A four-bedroom house with a view of the park in central London will cost 26.9 per cent (£1,138,200) more than its street-locked equivalent, according to new research by Savills. In north-west London, the markup is even higher at 30.4 per cent (£898,800) and in south-west London 16.5 per cent (£296,100).
“The wealth corridors which extend south, west and north are defined by the numbers of parks running through them,” says Sophie Chick, a researcher at Savills. “The highest premium is in the north because so many people buy family homes there. In the south-west there are a lot of commons and more potential for price growth.”
Hyde Park is the grandest of London parks by far, with a global profile and Buckingham Palace just a short walk away. It has a colourful history and is now the nation’s favourite outdoor music venue. Kylie Minogue and Taylor Swift performed there this summer.
“Homes around the parks are the most desirable in the London property market because outside space is always at a premium,” says Charles Lloyd, head of Savills Mayfair office. “The minute the sun shines people descend. They think of it as their back garden and even swim in the unheated outdoor lido in the Serpentine on Christmas Day.”
Property on the north side of the park is half the price of the homes on its southerly borders. “Bayswater, to the north, has a growing number of international residents and a more relaxed feel than Knightsbridge or Mayfair to the south,” he adds. North is where former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie have made their home in Connaught Square.
Hyde Park Gardens on the market with Savills
Some of Britain’s biggest names, including Robbie Williams and the Beckhams, have flocked to Holland Park with its semiwild woods. Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell also have homes nearby but keep a low profile. For Rupert Wiggin of Strutt & Parker this is “one of the most special parks”. An average two-bedroom flat costs £1.93 million while a four-bedroom house will set you back £4.8 million.
In the Nineties, Primrose Hill was the place to be, beloved of Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Jude Law and the Gallagher brothers. Jamie Oliver is the latest celebrity to fall for its charms. So, what do you pay? Hamish Gilfeather of John D Wood is selling a two-bedroom apartment in Oppidans Road at £1.85 million. “It is the best seat in London to enjoy New Year’s Eve firework displays,” he says.
Travel eastwards and, unsurprisingly, prices drop and the parks, along with the people, get trendier. A two-bedroom flat in Hackney’s London Fields – once common land where farmers grazed their cattle en route to Smithfield – costs around £500,000. Greenwich Park is also popular. Right on the river, it has historic buildings such as the National Maritime Museum and the Old Naval College.
South of the Thames there is a string of parks heading south-west from Battersea Park, to Clapham Common, Wandsworth Common and through to Wimbledon Common. “They are London’s village greens,” says Robin Chatwin of Savills. “Some people are so time-short that they don’t want to move out to the country and instead opt for life by a park.”
Clapham Common Westside
The result is that Victorian terrace houses close by now command a price tag of around £2 million. Properties near Richmond Park can sell for several million as it offers more leaf and wilderness. The 2,360 acres were conceived by Charles I as a deer park and are studded with Grade I listed buildings. It is three times the size of New York’s Central Park, veined with bridleways and still home to red and fallow deer. David Attenborough, Richard E Grant and Jerry Hall have homes here.
While the more prominent parks are a magnet for the rich and famous, younger professionals are not excluded from London’s green spaces. Priced out of the central areas, they are colonising roads around Streatham Common in south-west London and a twentysomething crowd can be found tossing Frisbees on Tooting Bec Common or triathlon training in the lido. It’s a stomping ground for first-time buyers with a hefty deposit as a two-bedroom flat will cost £475,000.
A two-bed flat in Acton.
If Tooting Bec is still too expensive, first-timers should look further south to Mitcham Common. The train takes 30 minutes from Mitcham Junction to London Bridge.
To the west, Ealing is dotted with smaller parks. Families in Hanwell can walk to Brent Lodge Park and enjoy the mini zoo and maze.
Outside the capital, Bristol, Bath and Cambridge are considered “very green” but in general our cities have far less parkland than London, says Johnny Morris, director at Countrywide. Much of it tends to be specialised, such as the Winter Gardens in Sheffield, the site of a large glasshouse.
Chester is an exception. Large swathes are owned by the Duke of Westminster, including the popular Grosvenor Park on the north bank of the River Dee.
The Meadows, on the south side, is even more sought after. “People will pay 20 per cent more to live with views over the Meadows,” says Andrew Perratt, Savills’ head of Scotland and the North.
In Scotland the pursuit of space is not such a big deal. “A lot of our cities are so near the highlands its quick and easy to reach greenery,” says Perratt. “And Glasgow has lots of private squares and gardens – accessed by a key – that adds to the value.”
While a home by a park is preferable, huge demand for such property is mainly a London phenomena.
“The collection of royal parks have meant that vast areas have been protected from construction,” says Morris. “And many central spots in our Northern cities were developed for workers around the time of the industrial revolution, not leaving much space for parks.”
And of course, he adds, outside London more people live in houses with gardens.
Children playing in Richmond Park.