Where to buy in London 2016: top 10 fastest rising Zone 5 hotspots from Sutton to Enfield

House price growth at the outer edges of the capital is soaring, particularly in the most sought-after districts in Zone 5. We reveal the rising hotspots to watch...
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Lizzie Rivera21 September 2016

Zone 5 now offers some of the most affordable pockets for first-time buyers to get on to the property ladder in London, with average house prices starting from £257,000.

With 65 per cent of homes in this travel Zone priced below £500,000, it also appeals to families looking for bigger homes with gardens, and a more peaceful pace of life within commuting distance of the city centre.

With prices continuing to rise across inner London, demand for homes in Zone has surged by up to 75 per cent over the past 12 months, making it the fastest growing travel Zone in terms of house prices, according to the latest data from Hamptons International.

"The extension of the underground northwards and the railway southwards has helped new suburbs spring up," says Hampton's research director, Fionnuala Earley.

The top five hotspots: Zone 5
(View gallery for the full top 10 list)

Station Borough Av. house price 12-month price growth 12-month demand
Bexleyheath Bexley £354,063 12.6% 74%
Albany Park Bexley £428,842 1.6% 72%
Carshalton Sutton £317,548 8.3% 67%
Wallington Sutton £351,295 11.3% 64%
Southbury Enfield £328,900 6.9% 58%
House price data provided by Hamptons and demand data by eMoov, September 2016.

The Zone 5 areas rising fastest in demand are Bexley in the south-east, Sutton in the south-west and Enfield in the north-east, according to online estate agent eMoov.

BEXLEY
Bexley
is connected to the centre of London by the Southeastern train network, which offers a 35-minute commute on trains into Charing Cross, Victoria and London Cannon Street stations.

Averaging £355,000, house prices in Bexleyheath are up to £130,000 less than the London average, giving obvious appeal to priced-out Londoners.

Average monthly rents here between April and June were also £1,135, far below the average rent across the entire capital of £1,998.

SUTTON
House prices in the borough of Sutton, home to the popular areas of Carshalton and Wallington, range from an average of £343,000 to £941,280.

On the far reaches of the capital, it was recently voted as one of the top five happiest places to live in London - despite the issues commuters regularly report regarding the district's rail services.

House prices in Wallington, an up-and-coming tech hub, average £351,000 and are about a 40-minute commute to London Victoria. It also has a farmers' market on the second Saturday of each month.

Neighbouring Carshalton is slightly cheaper, with house prices of about £318,000. Trains link to Victoria in 29 minutes and Kings Cross in 40 minutes.

Coming soon: Meridian Water in Enfield will have new homes and a new train station with services to Liverpool Street in 25 minutes and Stratford in 18 minutes. 

ENFIELD
Enfield
is very well connected as a range of train providers link the area to London in less than half an hour. These include the Tube, London Overground, Great Northern and Abellio Greater Anglia.

The borough offers some of the cheapest average house prices in the Zone, starting from £329,000 in Southbury, as well as some of the most expensive, with homes in Cockfosters averaging over £1 million.

One of the UK's largest housing projects, Meridian Water, is set to bring 10,000 new homes to young families beside the Lee Valley Regional Park in Enfield - plus a new train station will mean commutes to central London in less than 25 minutes.

"These outer pockets all offer a variety of property, plenty of parks and residential spaces," says eMoov founder Russell Quirk.

"High demand will often result in a price hike, so these are the areas to watch where value increase is concerned, particularly over the next year or so."