House market blooms in the ‘super suburbs’

Published 17th Oct 2009

The housing recovery is spreading to the suburbs. Just weeks after Savills, the estate agent, said the market in the southwest of London is now outperforming the capital’s ritziest central postcodes, it has revealed that space-hungry buyers are bidding up prices in the commuter-belt “super suburbs”.

Beneficiaries include Esher, Weybridge and Cobham in Surrey, as well as Northwood, northwest London, and Pratts Bottom in Kent.

Lucian Cook, a director of research at Savills, said that activity was fiercest in the £1 million to £1.5 million range. Prices for these homes are up by 11.1 per cent in the past six months.

Octagon, the upmarket developer, said that it had brokered six multimillion-pound deals in the past two weeks alone. David Smith, head of marketing, said: “Our £1 million to £2 million apartments in Wall Hall Mansion in Aldenham [Hertfordshire] were picked off one after another. And just as soon as our latest big family houses were released ... they had a queue of serious buyers around them.”


Property values across London’s prime suburbs have recovered, on average, by 7.8 per cent since the first quarter of this year and are now down just 15.5 per cent from the peak in 2007, according to Savills. Yet prices in Central London — where there is much talk of the hunger of wealthy overseas buyers for property — are still 16.6 per cent lower, despite rising 8.5 per cent since early this year. Prime country homes are 2.1 per cent higher, 16.3 per cent off their peak.

Agents predict that prices will soften next year and then struggle to recover fully before 2014. But Richard Winter, of Savills in Esher, said he expected prices in his area to be sustained. “You get a garden and garage and a bit more elbow room here and you’ve only lost another ten minutes to commuting. It is a natural upgrade.”

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