Investors interested in the London property market should be prepared to pay an extra £3,000 for every minute their property is closer to the capital’s centre, a new research revealed.
For each minute less spent on the train to central London, buyers will be paying an extra of £3,048. A research by Savills estate agents revealed this when looking at property prices around 314 stations on the outskirts of the capital.
On average, a house in inner London costs £606,000. Comparing this to the capital’s commuter locations within a half hour train ride from the city, prices go down the an average of £458,000.
Moving even further out, to a journey time of about 60 to 90 minutes, the average price comes down even further, to £337,000.
The recent addition of stamp duty and more regulations on mortgages have led to a slowdown in price growth across the country’s prime markets, but especially in London itself.
Sophie Chick, associate director of residential research at Savills explain the current situation as a “turning point”, as the number of buyers moving away from the London market is increasing.
An analysis of Savills buyers in the capital commuter belt shows 30% of sales so far this year were to those relocating from London, a rise in numbers from the same period on 2015 when only 23% of buyers made that decision.
However, when considering this as an option, savings in house prices must be considered against the cost of commuting.
“The amount of money you save will have to be compared by how much you spend on travel cost,” Chick explained.
Some formerly categorised as “traditional commuter towns” are now getting too expensive as house prices are climbing all across the UK, another researchm this time by Urban.co.uk, an online estate agent, has revealed.
Adam Male, the founder of Urban.co.uk explained that the increase in property prices in and around London stops first time buyers from putting down routes in location commutable to the capital’s centre.
Source: The Independent
