The outer east London cluster of Wanstead, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, Forest Gate and South Woodford are the hottest-selling postcodes in the capital, driven by young families pushing out from Hackney to get on the ladder or get more property for their money.
These micro housing markets are busy in stark contrast to the paralysis that has gripped the wider London housing market.
Only last week Halifax revealed that the average price of a London home had fallen £26,514 (4.8 per cent) over the past 12 months.
An online tool that measures the proportion of advertised homes that are under offer in a postcode versus those that are not has ranked E11 as the best local market for sellers with demand outstripping supply.
“Buyer demand is strongest in Wanstead-Leytonstone (E11) and Highbury (N5) with the hottest temperatures both at 56 degrees — meaning 56 per cent of homes listed for sale are under offer, indicating a very hot sellers’ market,” explains PropCast founder Gavin Brazg.
Of the 10 postcodes, seven are in east London, reflecting perceived value for money and affordability, says Anna Minton, author and reader of architecture at the University of East London.
“Put simply, the London property market is so expensive and so overheated that these parts of London seem more affordable — depending on your definition of affordable,” she says.
“Plus the Elizabeth line has opened up outer pockets of east London to buyers.”
The coldest markets feature the exclusive core of the capital and includes W1 (the West End), SW10 (Chelsea and Fulham) and W2 (Bayswater).
There were a third fewer sales in what is known as ‘prime central London’ (PCL) in October compared with the same month the year before, according to Hamptons data, with neither buyers nor sellers in a rush against a backdrop of financial and political instability.
The Hotspot Index
0–25 degrees: very cold extreme buyers’ market
26–34 degrees: cold, buyers’ market
35–49 degrees: hot, sellers’ market
50–100 degrees: very hot, extreme sellers’ market
However, ‘hotspots’ are different in different property markets, says Winkworth boss, Dominic Agace.
Up to 2007 they were dominated by investors buying along planned new train lines. When house prices crashed during the financial crisis and the cost of debt plummeted, homebuyers bought closer into the centre of London.
“Nearly 15 years on and the combination of high prices and high interest rates is pushing homebuyers out again. But, in times of uncertainty (and with punitive stamp duty) buyers do not want to take too great a risk. They are looking for cheaper areas one ‘village’ away with rows of Victorian terraces near to the amenities they already know,” Agace says. These are compromise hotspots.
To spot a hotspot, he advises, look for the London characteristics that people will always love, such as period housing stock and a central green space. Independent businesses (like coffee shops) are a sign of life, too.
“Back a shorter high street over a long one, as they take less time to gentrify,” he adds.
So, where are London’s 10 hottest spots now, and can a post-war sink estate such as Thamesmead really become the next Hackney?
Leytonstone and Wanstead, E11
- Temperature: 56 degrees
- Average house price: £558,889
Leytonstone and Leyton are framed by vast green space: Leyton Flats, Wanstead Park and Wanstead Flats.
Both areas are within travel Zone 4 and close to the Elizabeth line at Stratford.
Creative director Sam Pye (Echlin Studio), his wife, Maudie, and little boy now live between Leyton Midland (Overground) station and Leytonstone station but were initially reluctant to leave Hackney.
The couple had rented in different apartments in Bethnal Green but when it came to buying realised they needed to relocate further out.
“We were looking at small flats in Hackney but realised we could buy a house in Leyton. It felt quiet at first but we soon got used to it and over the last year it has got much buzzier. There is lots of energy coming from new independent businesses,” he says.
There’s Yardarm, an independent wine store on Francis Road, and Morny bakehouse.
Highbury, N5
- Temperature: 56 degrees
- Average house price: £839,110
Restaurateurs Mat Appleton and Jess Blackstone — founders of the north London cafe chain Fink’s — opened their newest venture last month in the heart of Highbury.
Saltine is a modern “neighbourhood” restaurant.
“We love Highbury,” says Blackstone. “The best thing about it is the people. There’s a real mix — lots of arty types alongside young families moving in and older people who have lived here for decades.”
The food scene has really grown, too. Saltine is on Highbury Park, which is starting to rival Islington’s Upper Street.
There is a wide choice of schools including two outstanding secondaries: Samuel Rhodes and the City of London Academy.
Walthamstow, E17
- Temperature: 53 degrees
- Average house price: £519,630
Kim Heywood of The Stow Brothers describes the Walthamstow housing market as “strong and stable” compared with the frantic pandemic years.
Homes are still selling quickly though, within three to four weeks as opposed to a London average of 67 days. Walthamstow village, the oldest part of the area and centred on Orford Road, has long been popular and become very expensive.
As a result, buyers have migrated to other pockets of Walthamstow, explains Heywood, such as Wood Street.
“Wood Street has seen a lot of investment and boasts coffee shops, boutiques, bars and breweries,” she says.
Claire Isherwood and Alice Churchward live on Wood Street with their toddler, Lenny. The pair also run the Real Al Taproom. For them it’s the perfect place to raise a family.
“We run through Epping Forest with the dog and the buggy, parents socialise at the cricket club after nursery on a Friday,” says Claire.
Her favourite joints include Lacy Nook, which serves Balkan small plates, and Hometipple, which sells wines and spirits.
Mortlake and East Sheen, SW14
- Temperature: 53 degrees
- Average house price: £919,120
Mortlake and East Sheen stick out on the ranking as the only top 10 hot area in the west of the capital.
According to J D Wood’s Dominic Murray, there is a combination of factors that keeps the housing market in this locale perennially busy.
“It’s just a really nice place to live. People stay for a long time and therefore properties do not come up for sale that often.” (In other words, it is the lack of stock that keeps the housing market ticking over, not the quest for relative affordability.)
“It has everything: green space, the river, busy high streets, pubs and restaurants and good connectivity,” says Murray.
“After the lockdowns, people are looking to strike a balance between a quick commute to the office while living further out near more green space — Mortlake and East Sheen is the sweet spot.”
South Woodford, E18
- Temperature: 53 degrees
- Average house price: £526,765
South Woodford sits across the forest east of Walthamstow.
The green spaces are Tricia Darwell’s favourite thing about the area where she has lived for 24 years.
The former film advertising executive and now dog walker has seen South Woodford change as more young people and families have migrated to its narrow Victorian streets.
“It feels very safe,” she says. “Having grown up in rural Ireland, South Woodford has a real village vibe about it."
Darwell is involved in local rewilding projects, cattle have been reintroduced to Epping Forest and there are urban orchards being created on dead land. There’s the monthly farmers’ market on George Lane and the best coffee (according to Darwell) is served at Tipi cafe.
She also recommends new gastro wine bar The Decanter, The Railway Bell pub and The Duke.
Eltham, SE9
- Temperature: 51 degrees
- Average house price: £475,533
“First-time buyers and families looking for more space in a leafier area have discovered Eltham,” says Steve Brown of Winkworth.
They are particularly attracted to the new homes on Eltham Park Estate, 334 acres of farmland built on between 1900 and 1914, he explains.
Here, two-bedroom starter homes cost £350,000.
Grammar school A Corbett House attracts families from Blackheath, too.
There’s plenty of green space: Eltham Park (which joins Shepherdleas Wood, part of Oxleas Wood) and Eltham Palace and Gardens has 19 acres of gardens, a medieval great hall and was a former royal residence.
Court Road is considered to be the most desirable street — this is where Kate Bush lived in a house called Wuthering Heights — as it backs on to Royal Blackheath Golf Club.
Thamesmead, SE28
- Temperature: 51 degrees
- Average house price: £314,719
Built as a revolutionary new town in the Sixties, Thamesmead is now in the middle of being utterly reimagined.
One of the main criticisms of the former brutalist estate was that it felt cut off without an easy and quick connection to London.
In 2014 Britain’s oldest and largest housing association, Peabody, took it over with the view to creating a (new) new town on the water that is walkable to the Elizabeth line at Abbey Wood. It now takes 25 minutes into the West End.
The 30-year project will deliver 2,800 new homes with phase one — Southmere — already completed. This overlooks the main lake where there is now a community centre and library.
There aren’t the rows of Victorian terraces in the existing residential streets — turn-of-the-millennium apartment blocks sit on the Thames and around Gallions Reach Park and the closest evening out is at the Royal Arsenal Riverside, where there are cafes and art galleries (Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair).
Forest Gate, E7
- Temperature: 51 degrees
- Average house price: £516,369
Gaurav Malik, director at the University of East London, has lived in Forest Gate, another Crossrail beneficiary, for 25 years.
“It’s a real tapestry of residents and businesses. It is full of young people and old, and you can get a kebab next door to an organic food shop,” he says.
“It has real high streets — for me that means a post office, a supermarket or grocery store, and a dry cleaners.”
Malik drags his kids bird watching on Wanstead Flats and yet can still see Canary Wharf.
“The architecture here is the key,” he explains.
“The narrow rows of Victorian terraced housing creates a tight community. People are moving here and renovating and therefore the community is evolving organically. I go to Wanstead Flats to clear my head but I also love the pub quiz at the Forest Tavern and the food at Giovanna’s.”
Herne Hill, SE24
- Temperature: 51 degrees
- Average house price: £778,722
There are two sides to Herne Hill, a quiet spot tucked between the extroverted Brixton and Peckham, stretching from Brockwell Park north towards Burgess Park.
One side is dominated by families (to the south and in the catchment for the schools in north Dulwich) and the other by those who want to avoid NCT groups and the school-run crush (the Brixton side).
These people buy in the conservation area of Poet’s Corner (Shakespeare Road, Spenser Road, Milton Road and Chaucer Road).
“People who want to buy family homes to get into the most popular state school in the area near North Dulwich Charter pay a premium to be there,” says Mel Carter of Hamptons. “We continue to see a shortage of stock to meet demand.”
Carter describes Herne Hill as a “small patch,” with local haunts such as Utter Waffle for brunch, The Florence pub, Dough Bakehouse and the Ken’s — a Jay Raynor recommendations for fish and chips in south London.
Abbey Wood, SE2
- Temperature: 50 degrees
- Average house price: £314,719
Abbey Wood is the last stop on the Elizabeth line on the south-eastern branch.
There’s a new station with a Sainsbury’s, houses, rental homes, a new library and a public square but it is residential suburb rather than typical London urban village.
Journey times have been halved since the express train line was up and running, bringing more homebuyers, which will, in turn, bring more amenities.
The area is peaceful with streets centred on Lesnes Abbey Woods, a nature reserve with a fossil park, and borders the ancient Bostall Heath and Woods.
The Alexander McLeod primary school has a good rating.
Residents head to Bexley Heath or Woolwich for larger amenities such as the cinema or to shop, but Abbey Wood Village Market has more than 30 stalls and pop-ups and the Abbey Arms serves sourdough pizza and craft beer.
