New research by central London estate agency Bective has found that some pockets of the prime central London market have remained impervious to the pandemic property price decline seen over the last year, with Kensington and Chelsea accounting for six of the largest house price jumps at ward level.
Despite a housing market boom caused by the stamp duty holiday, London has trailed the rest of the UK where house price growth is concerned with an annual increase of just 5.2%.
Kensington and Chelsea has seen the second-lowest rate of growth of all London boroughs with the average house price in the borough falling by -10.8% in the last year, with just the City of London seeing a larger decline (-16.6%).
However, when scratching beneath the surface of top-line statistics, Bective’s research has found that there are several wards within Kensington and Chelsea that have performed remarkably during the pandemic. So much so that the borough accounts for six of the 10 largest increases in house price, with Brent, Southwark, Haringey and Hammersmith and Fulham also featuring.
The Kensington ward of Norland has seen house prices climb by over £1m in a single year, with the wards of Notting Dale (£552,500), Royal Hospital (£446,000) and St Helen’s (£365,000) also seeing some of the largest cash increases in the average house price.
The wards of Dalgarno (£300,000) and Brompton and Hans Town (£287,500) also rank within the top 10 largest cash increases in property values at seventh and eighth respectively.
Brent’s Tokyngton ward has seen the fifth-largest increase of all London wards at £331,500, followed by Southwark’s Dulwich Village (£309,000).
The Alexandra ward of Haringey (£274,075) and Hammersmith and Fulham’s Fulham Reach (£273,050) complete the top 10 London wards to see the strongest property price increases during the pandemic.
Bective Revenues Director, Craig Tonkin, commented:
“In a market as unique as prime central London, top-line statistics rarely tell the full story and on a more granular level, there will be a vast difference in demand and price growth between one neighbourhood and the next.
Market momentum is built very much on a quality over quantity basis and so while transaction levels will remain low even in the most buoyant of conditions, it only takes a few notable sales to bring about a real boost to values in a given area.
Kensington and Chelsea may have seen one of the largest declines of all boroughs in the last year, largely due to travel restrictions preventing foreign buyers from transacting. However, properties have continued to change hands and in some areas, they have done so at a considerably higher price despite the problems posed by the pandemic.”
