Location, location, location. Worst house, best street.
Once upon a time, if you’d ever considered buying a home, these phrases would have provided a looped backing track to your life.
Prevailing wisdom has always been to buy in the ‘best’ area you can afford, with a home’s other attributes consigned to a negotiable list.
After all, you can redecorate or extend a house, but you can’t move it (not even if you’re hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin trying to relocate a historic house off your £88.3 million Miami estate).
Tube stations, schools and parks were always high on London buyers’ wishlists, while in a city of postcode snobs, people dressed up (or down) their address in line with their social aspirations.
This all changed in 2020, when suddenly a Covid-ridden Tube stop or closed hype restaurant was of little use compared to space for a home office.
And, preferences have not switched back as quickly as predicted.
Savills research shows almost all buyers (93 per cent) prioritising the quality of a home above proximity to transport and schools.
So, is our obsession with location over for good?
Perhaps not in London, where recent figures show buyers creeping back to flats (with sales at their highest level in three years according to Knight Frank research) and counting the steps to the Tube and the shops.
I’m pleased not everyone’s desperate to become a palace-dwelling hermit, but it’s good to see the options expanding for those who want them.
After all, no buyer’s bank balance ever complained about less competition.
