The London property market may be moving incredibly slowly, but if you aspire to buying a house in Clapham or Ealing you will still need to get your skates on.
The SW4 and W5 postcodes have emerged as the capital’s speediest property markets, with homes in those areas taking only 14 days to sell — despite average sale prices being more than £800,000, according to data from estate agent Hamptons.
Deals are also being struck fast in Edmonton, N9, and Tooting, SW17, with the average time taken to find a buyer in those postcodes standing at just 16 days. These options are also more affordable — the average sale price in Edmonton is £374,000, while in Tooting it’s £683,000.
Today’s research is based on the London agent’s own deal book over the past six months. It analyses how long the homes which have found a buyer took to secure an offer.
It found that, on average, sold homes in the capital take almost eight weeks to receive an acceptable offer. Back in 2014, the last market peak, homes took just 27 days to sell.
Today, in what is very much a buyers’ market, average time frames have more than doubled to 55 days, with vendors being forced into widespread price-cutting to tempt purchasers out of the woodwork.
Crucially, today’s research highlights those homes which are actually under offer or sold. There are also properties where owners have waited months — or even years — for a buyer to meet their price expectations.
If a property needs work, is overpriced, or, in the case of flats, has a short lease or high service charges and ground rents, they can be tough to sell at all
Ben Ainsworth, director of Winkworth in Clapham, says while he is being kept busy with buyers moving out from more expensive areas, a two-tier market has developed where well-priced family houses in good condition are routinely snapped up within a week, while flats, equally well priced and smart, take up to four weeks.
And if a property needs work, is overpriced, or, in the case of flats, has a short lease or high service charges and ground rents, they can be tough to sell at all.
“Anything with those sort of problems is being avoided at all costs,” Ainsworth says. “I have buyers who consider 100 years a short lease and won’t even consider those properties, if they want a flat then they prefer a share of freehold.”
A proportion of the homes being listed are, says Ainsworth, overpriced. “There is definitely an audience of people who are still attached to autumn 2022 prices — which was the last peak of the market,” he said. “I don’t necessarily blame vendors. A lot of it is agent-led, with people being told their homes are worth more than they are now.”
SW4 and W5 are the capital’s speediest property markets
Out further west, Stuart Balfre, head of sales at Savills Ealing, agrees the market for well-presented family houses is brisk. He believes this has much to do with the Elizabeth line effect. “People are realising just how fantastic it is, and we have seen a shift of buyers from the City, Islington and central London,” he says.
Flats, again, are harder to sell, partly because there is a glut of such properties available. “There are so many new buildings coming on to the market,” he says. “If they are not priced correctly they will not sell. Buyers are being very picky and if a property is even slightly overpriced they do not even want to view it.”
Across London’s 200-plus postcodes, Hamptons has identified just seven where sold homes typically found their match within three weeks. Aside from Ealing, Clapham, Tooting and Edmonton, these include TW10 — Richmond — which covers the leafy swathe of streets between south Putney and Petersham, where homes sold for an average of more than £1.11 million and took 19 days to sell.
The remaining two are W11 — Notting Hill — the most expensive location in the league table, with average prices of more than £1.9 million; and Maida Vale and Kilburn — W9 — with average prices of £946,000. Homes in those two postcodes currently take 20 days to shift.
|
Post code |
Area |
Median days to sell |
Average price (last 12m) |
% sold +£1m |
SW4 |
Clapham |
14 |
£811,320 |
19% |
W5 |
Ealing |
14 |
£803,110 |
21% |
N9 |
Edmonton |
16 |
£373,830 |
0% |
SW17 |
Tooting |
16 |
£683,480 |
12% |
TW10 |
Richmond |
19 |
£1,115,070 |
32% |
W11 |
Notting Hill |
20 |
£1,954,330 |
49% |
W9 |
Maida Vale & West Kilburn |
20 |
£945,890 |
21% |
RM11 |
Emerson Park |
22 |
£540,140 |
5% |
N7 |
Camden |
26 |
£644,950 |
11% |
RM10 |
Dagenham |
26 |
£354,730 |
0% |
RM3 |
Romford |
27 |
£411,240 |
0% |
IG8 |
Woodford |
27 |
£635,740 |
9% |
SW12 |
Balham |
28 |
£854,150 |
23% |
E7 |
Forest Gate |
28 |
£506,460 |
3% |
E6 |
East Ham |
28 |
£403,090 |
0% |
Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, says while sales in central London are generally extremely slow, zone two is proving a sweet spot for buyers — and is the only part of the capital where homes are selling faster than they were last year.
“These more affordable and well-connected areas are still seeing homes sell in just a few weeks,” she said. “These pockets share characteristics that have always appealed to buyers: good transport links, vibrant high streets, and a mix of housing stock.”
