With skyscrapers dominating the city skyline and countless built-up areas, London can seem to be like a concrete jungle. Perhaps surprisingly, the capital does also sport a remarkable quantity of sprawling parks in places for example Hampstead, Richmond and even the town centre. But exactly how a premium do you have to pay to live near one?
Stunning green spaces offer a welcome respite from the rat race for that a lot more than eight million people who call London home.
But inside a city known for its eye-watering house prices, can the amount of nearby green space have an impact on the need for a home or flat?
Estate agency firm Benham and Reeves claims it may, after analysing the relationship between your quantity of green space and average house prices in every London borough.
Which? compares the outcomes of the study and explains your options while looking to purchase a property in London.
How London housing prices are impacted by green space
Benham and Reeves checked out the quantity of London included in ‘public open green space’ – 31%, based on the London Data Store – and Land Registry data showing the average London house price is lb530,201.
The estate agency then divided the average house price in every borough by the amount of green space in order to exercise what it really claims is the green space premium in every area.
According towards the research, Londoners are paying a lb245 per square metre premium for his or her parks and public outdoor spaces.
The table below shows how it breaks down in every borough.
London’s ‘green space premium’
The amount paid per square metre (psm) of green space varies dramatically across London’s 32 boroughs.
The green space premium is a whopping lb5,638 psm in the City of London (which encompasses the financial district), where parks are few in number, along with a still-punchy lb753 psm in Kensington and Chelsea, London’s smallest borough.
If you’d like to live near more green space without losing your proximity towards the city centre, one option might be Camden, where a quarter from the land is green space and also the fees are said by Benham and Reeves to be lb146. You’ll need a big budget though: the typical house price there's lb788,656.
A slightly cheaper alternative may be the East London borough of Hackney, where 23% from the borough is given to green space and the premium continues to be calculated as lb112. A property there'll cost you around lb536,344, according to the Land Registry.
Unsurprisingly the research indicates the outer boroughs, where house prices are lower, have a tendency to boast more public back yard and for that reason a lower ‘green space premium’.
If green space is essential for you and also you can’t afford a home in Camden or Hackney, you may consider Bromley (58% green space), where you’d pay just lb5 psm of green space and face a comparatively cheap average house price of lb443,289.
People buying in Havering (59% green space) and Hillingdon (49%), in which the average housing prices are lb373,653 and lb413,038 respectively, pay lb6 and lb7 psm of green space, according to the research.
The map below shows the green space premium in each and every London borough.
Buying a house in London
If you're planning to buy a home or flat working in london, now's great time as property prices have recently dropped in London amid uncertainty over Brexit negotiations.
That said, prices within the capital, even just in the cheapest areas, are usually well over the UK average.
To balance the high cost of London property, there are a number of schemes designed to give buyers an advantage:
London Assistance to Buy
The London Assistance to Buy equity loans scheme allows first-time buyers and residential movers to gain access to up to 40% of the property's value in the government.
They can buy the house having a 5% deposit and obtain a mortgage for the remaining 55%.
London Help to Buy is only on new-build homes priced lb600,000 or less.
Shared ownership
Shared ownership may be a choice for you should you can’t afford to buy outright.
The scheme enables you to buy share which is between 25% and 75% inside a property, and pay rent around the remaining share.
