Property hotspots: the best places to buy a home in north London this year

From new Crossrail stations to Opportunity Areas and trendy new-build homes — the indicators of how to spot an area with hidden potential will lead you to these three north London areas on the cusp of regeneration.

KENSAL GREEN

If districts were people, Kensal Green might be described as a cool and rebellious young upstart with ideas above its station.

“Station”, arguably, is the operative word as Transport for London is planning a Crossrail terminus on a derelict gasworks bordering Grand Union Canal and the area’s magnificent Victorian cemetery, an overlooked green oasis.

Moreover, Kensal Canalside has been designated an “Opportunity Area”, or priority development zone, by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, meaning regeneration plans are being fast-tracked.

A new station will spark immense change, bring up to 5,000 new homes and could well put the area on a par with trendy Queen’s Park nearby. Property consultants Cushman & Wakefield call Kensal Green “a location of hidden value”.

The canalside land also hugs the main railway line from Heathrow to Paddington. To the east lies Ladbroke Grove, while to the west is Wormwood Scrubs and White City.

Some unkempt corners are to be found amid the boutiques, bistros and baristas around Chamberlayne Road, a hipster hub, and this has kept a lid on property prices.

Prime Place, with 56 apartments and 15 townhouses, is one of the new-era developments.

Two-bedroom flats cost from £695,000. Call Hamptons on 020 3463 9984. Residents can enjoy a communal roof garden, while there’s a new sports centre alongside.

CALEDONIAN ROAD

Now that King’s Cross has become a coveted place to live following the transformation of derelict railway lands, another formerly scruffy area to the north of the station is swinging into fashion.

For decades, Caledonian Road, the spine of this area, was the scrag end of fashionable Islington, stretching almost to Camden past two of Her Majesty’s less salubrious residences, Pentonville and Holloway prisons, the latter now earmarked for redevelopment into luxury homes.

Sliced through by train tracks, the district has a down-to-earth, multicultural character, still largely working class, and what it lacks in architectural beauty it makes up for in location and connectivity.

A decaying Victorian factory transformed into 23 low-energy homes and work studios was the first telltale sign of change along “The Cally”.

Now it has been followed by London Square Caledonian Road — a much larger scheme of 150 flats in the Market Road conservation area that includes 10-acre Caledonian Park.

London Square, the developer, is building nine low-to-mid-rise blocks clad in pastel-coloured bricks, with metal window frames and full-height glass, set around landscaped courtyards and play areas.

Two-bedroom flats cost from £699,999. Call 0333 666 0109.

CRICKLEWOOD

Argent, the urban regeneration specialist behind the impressive makeover of King’s Cross, is expected to work its magic again at Cricklewood, where a £4.5 billion redevelopment of railway lands is bringing 6,700 homes, three new schools, four parks, oceans of office space and a new Thameslink station offering a 12-minute commute to central London.

After years on the drawing board, the project is starting, making this cheaper north-west London district a promising place to put down roots.

Upsizers from West Hampstead can settle into an affordable family house in a credible-sounding postcode less than four miles from Marble Arch — and buy into an area on the up.

A new high street will lead to a revamped Brent Cross Shopping Centre and continue across the North Circular via a “Living Bridge”, a new cycle and pedestrian route.

The area came of age in the 1880s when Midland Railway Company moved its locomotive works from Kentish Town to the new Brent Sidings and built an estate of worker cottages, now sought-after private homes.

Check out the quieter streets and conservation areas either side of bustling Cricklewood Broadway.

These include Mapesbury Estate and roads surrounding 86 acre-Gladstone Park.

Gladstone Village is a new micro neighbourhood where housing association Octavia Living is selling stylish four-bedroom houses priced from £895,000.

Flats will be available later. Call 020 8208 8355.