Focus On Stoke Newington: The affluent London village is a charming spot to find a family house in Hackney
As quintessential London villages go, Stoke Newington is probably the coolest. Set in the trendy confines of the London Borough of Hackney, it escaped the decline of surrounding areas during the 1930s and still attracts an upmarket, arty clientele today. “Stoke Newington was built for London’s increasingly class conscious white collar worker,” says David Fell, research analyst at Hamptons International.
“By the turn of the 20th century, new homes were going for £450, around twice the average in the capital at the time and well beyond what ordinary Londoners could afford. Many terraced homes were designed to resemble grander semi-detached villas, giving the illusion of greater affluence.”
Even today, most of its buyers tend to come from Islington or the City fringes, rather than the wider borough, looking for better value for money, though that may have changed over the last decade. “Over this period, average sale prices have increased by 93 per cent compared to 66 per cent across Greater London,” says Frances Clacy, Savills research analyst, adding that nearly a third of all sales were over £1m. The estate agent’s data puts the average second-hand sale price in the last 12 months at £752,514, over £100,000 more than the Hackney average.
New homes have made up less than 10 per cent of property sales for the last 14 years, according to Hamptons International data
Savills also records a slight slowing in prices – a 3.4 per cent increase in the average sale price, compared to Hackney’s 3.6 per cent increase – but this could be to do with the large amount of new development that’s going on in the rest of the borough pushing up prices. There’s barely any of that in Stokey; new homes have made up less than 10 per cent of property sales for the last 14 years, according to Hamptons International data using Land Registry figures, so this is an area for fans of traditional homes.
Clissold Park
“There are beautiful Grade II Listed properties on Church Street and the Albion and Clissold Roads are also popular, with one bed flats from £400,000 and four bed family houses from £1.2m plus,” says Laurie Penry-Jones at Fyfe Mcdade. “The area around Mildmay Grove has a number of hidden warehouse properties which attract the young professionals in particular.”
Proximity to green space is also prized, with properties close to Clissold Park achieving record sales prices. The most expensive street, according to Hamptons, is Allerton Road, where the average price is around £1.2m, but the highest sale ever achieved was £2.11m on Cazenove Road in 2015.