Be a City slicker: new homes near Liverpool Street will be six minutes from Canary Wharf when Crossrail opens with London's latest skyscraper on the doorstep

Make a smart investment and be brilliantly connected with a new home amid Bishopsgate’s sparkling glass towers.
Emily Wright24 March 2020

There are few London districts that epitomise the capital’s rich blend of history and modernity quite like Bishopsgate.

At the area’s central and arguably best-known reference point, Liverpool Street station, you are just a stone’s throw from the narrow cobbled backstreets that weave, maze-like, east to Old Spitalfields Market and north towards Shoreditch.

The station is also flanked by some of the City’s shiniest new residential developments.

From the renovated, £20 million Broadgate Circle scheme to the Heron Tower, Liverpool Street is now a hotspot not just for new homes, but for world-renowned design innovation — great news for prospective home buyers with deep pockets, and there is much more to come.

IT’S ALL ABOUT WELLNESS

Liverpool Street will be a stop on the Elizabeth line from 2019, while 22 Bishopsgate — aka Twentytwo — one of London’s most headline-grabbing new office buildings, is under construction.

The £1 billion, 62-storey tower designed by PLP Architecture and developed by Lipton Rogers will be the UK’s first building with WELL certification, a rating tool administered by America’s International Well Building Institute.

The standard puts health and wellness at the centre of design and construction decisions.

New homes near Liverpool Street

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The tower will include a foyer that doubles up as an art gallery, a street food hall, a bonsai garden, tea lounge, spa and wellness centre, plus a glass climbing wall with views out over the City to the Shard.

“The key with this project is sociability,” says workplace guru Despina Katsikakis.

“That plays a huge part when it comes to wellness. This building will bring something totally new to the area.”

ONE STOP FOR HOMES HALF THE PRICE

The scale, calibre and global profile of Twentytwo is very relevant to home buyers. It will become a future selling point and could well fuel a boost in local property prices.

Tuck in: trendy places to eat abound at Old Spitalfields Market 
Getty Images

Also, as the Crossrail route edges ever closer to prime central London territory, those prices start to rise exponentially.

The average price for a flat in Bishopsgate stands at £981,781 according to Rightmove, while the average terrace house is about £1.5 million.

This compares respectively to £576,000 and £796,000 in Whitechapel — just one stop east along the line.

But then Liverpool Street is one of London’s biggest infrastructure hubs, which makes the surrounding area one of the best connected and valuable by default.

When Crossrail opens, it will slash the journey time to Canary Wharf from 22 minutes to six and to Paddington from 23 minutes to just 10.

But great transport links are not the only factor meaning homes in this area come at a premium.

The renovation of Broadgate Circle, which reopened in 2015, introduced more than 60 new restaurants and shops, including big names aimed at the City clientele such as Yauatcha, Aubaine, The Botanist and Gaucho.

Street stalls: the area is home to a mix of big business and thriving street life
Getty Images/Lonely Planet Image

Bishopsgate is a solid investment option. Great transport links, superior local amenities and a steady and reliable pipeline of new development — commercial and residential alike — give this area a secure future.

And there are plenty of homes for sale for less than the local £900,000-plus average.

Off-plan prices at The Stage, a Galliard Homes scheme set to complete in 2020, start at £685,000 for a studio flat. Call 020 3883 4398.

Eat on the street: there's no shortage of dining options in the area
Alamy Stock Photo

Prices at Taylor Wimpey’s The Denizen scheme, which will include access to a communal pocket park, start at £790,000 for a one-bedroom home. Call 020 3780 2479.

For those seeking cheaper options, there is the shared-ownership route.

Prices at Godfrey Place, a Genesis Homes scheme in nearby Shoreditch, start at £162,000 for a 25 per cent share of a two-bedroom flat worth £650,000. Call 020 3553 7273.