Edward Foley is owner of Winkworth in Wimbledon, south London. Here he gives his views about what is happening in the property market in his area.
For two weeks every year, Wimbledon, in the London Borough of Merton, becomes an international focus of attention as the world famous tennis tournament takes place. It attracts thousands of fans from around the world to the area and the local property market comes under close scrutiny.
Arriving by train or tube to Wimbledon brings you into what locals call Wimbledon town, with the main high street stores you would expect in most large towns as well as the appropriately named Centre Court Shopping Centre.
The housing stock in this part of the area is mostly Victorian semis and terraced houses. Expect to pay upwards of £900,000 for a terraced house within an easy walk of the station.
There are also plenty of modern purpose built flats that have been built in recent years and start from £375,000 for a one bedroom flat rising up to over £1,000,000 as you approach the slope of the hill towards Wimbledon Village.
Walking up from the station you reach the highly sought after Wimbledon Village, with its boutique shops and restaurants as well as a few historical pubs that attract the crowds on any warm summer evening, but are positively overflowing during the tennis fortnight.
Wimbledon Village is probably the closest you can get to living in the country yet still being in London. There are two riding stables in the village, with horses regularly parading through on their way to Wimbledon Common. Expect to pay just over £1,000,000 for a two bedroom cottage just off the common and up to £25,000,000 for one of the bigger houses overlooking the common.
Having hundreds of thousands of people descending on Wimbledon for that fortnight does raise the level of enquiries we receive. There is a noticeable increase in web traffic; we have found over the years that we receive fresh enquiries from many overseas investors as well as other UK investors who had not realised what a great place Wimbledon is, as well as how easy it is to get to central London. (Expect to get to Waterloo from Wimbledon in about 20 minutes).
This year has seen good demand for family houses sub £2,000,000 with very few buyers showing interest over that level due to the uncertainty of the general election results.
I’m pleased to report that since then we have seen confidence return to the market and enquiries for the larger houses has increased again, not to huge numbers but the buyers we are getting are serious about moving to Wimbledon.
With a global audience again between Monday 29th June and Sunday 12th July, I expect we will see that interest in local property increases again.
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