Where to buy a London house in 2019: the property hotspots to watch with big transformations in the pipeline

Staying ahead of the investment curve can be tricky — delays to the Elizabeth line launch and Brexit uncertainty being among on-going challenges — but the capital has plenty of exciting pockets where regeneration is already well underway.

Here are our pick of the London hotspots to watch out for next year and beyond.

EAST LONDON
Barking
On London’s eastern fringes, in the depths of Zone 4, Barking is an unlikely setting for a multibillion-pound, skyscraper-studded mini Manhattan. 

But the council is determined to think big and reinvent Barking town centre along the lines of central New York, complete with thousands of new high-rise homes, a “loose grid” street layout, a central park, a redesigned station and a rejuvenated shopping centre.

And, just as plans for Barking town centre are being finalised, so work is already well advanced at the adjacent Barking Riverside, an industrial swathe of land where almost 11,000 homes are being built. Over the next 10 to 15 years, up to 30,000 people will move there.

Bromley-by-Bow
Just south of the Olympic Park, Bromley-by-Bow is becoming a regeneration hotspot as hundreds of millions of pounds pour in to transform old industrial sites into a residential area.

A 10-year plan for many acres here will bring more than 8,000 waterfront homes to the banks of the River Lea.

Living by the Thames is hugely popular and can be prohibitively expensive, so here’s a chance for forward-thinking young Londoners to nab a river view without paying the premium.

Poplar
Billions of pounds are being poured into the “ugly duckling of east London”.

Poplar's building pipeline includes 3,000 flats, both in new buildings and revived brutalist landmarks, plus shops, offices and new parks. Homes are on offer for renters, buyers and first-timers needing subsidised homes.

Blackhorse Road
The big idea, under the Blackhorse Lane Action Plan, is to build about 2,500 homes north of Blackhorse Road station and attract a new generation of makers, designers, artists and start-up entrepreneurs.

It’s intended to breathe life into an area which had disappeared off the map as the property boom in the rest of Waltham Forest borough passed it by.

East Ham
Over the next five years hundreds of millions of pounds will be poured into this well-connected and fantastic-value neighbourhood, creating many hundreds of new homes for first timers, other buyers and renters to augment its still-affordable period housing stock. Along with new homes, East Ham will get new cafés, shops, and restaurants.

Whitechapel
Whitechapel is currently by far the most affordable central London area to get a Crossrail station and on that basis it’s a go-to option for buyers seeking a Zone 1 address.

Tower Hamlets council believes Whitechapel has the potential for 3,500 new homes to be built over the coming years, along with new shops, restaurants, cafés, offices, and schools to serve its new community, whose ranks will be swelled by the intake at a planned £300 million science research campus for Queen Mary University of London.

Bethnal Green
It might be one of the last surviving pockets of authentic East End London, resisting the gentrification that has embraced much of Tower Hamlets, but Bethnal Green’s resistance is weakening, wooed by a series of major new developments and fashionable small conversions that are warming it up for a place in the league table of hotspots.

Keen renovators can still find outstanding period houses, while major housebuilders are already on to the opportunities provided by abandoned Victorian institutes and industrial wastelands.

Plans to reboot the former London Chest Hospital and its four acres of grounds beside Victoria Park, which closed in 2015 after 160 years’ service, were approved by Tower Hamlets council in September.

SOUTH-EAST LONDON
Canada Water
Canada Water sits a single Tube stop from Canary Wharf — but in development terms it is about 30 years behind its more glamorous neighbour.

This former London dock has been sad and neglected for decades. But now, with prices in Canary Wharf rocketing, developers have turned their attentions to the south side of the Thames and Canada Water. Smart buyers should start to watch this space.

Walworth
With multibillion-pound regeneration projects going on all around it, Walworth is changing and home buyers are starting to take note.

This is Zone 1 territory, so buying into Walworth is no longer a steal, but it is still cheaper than neighbouring areas.

The rebirth of the Aylesbury Estate is the largest example of investment coming into Walworth, but there are plenty of smaller-scale developments.

Charlton
As regeneration flows along the River Thames the next location set to benefit from billions of pounds of investment is Charlton.

Over the next 25 years up to 5,000 new homes, along with new shops and restaurants, schools, a riverbus pier and a “creative quarter”, are to be built on a 275-acre swathe of industrial land overlooking the Thames Barrier.

Throw in some excellent existing schools plus what many other regeneration zones lack — a strong established community and neighbourhood to knit into — and Charlton is now, officially, One To Watch.

SOUTH LONDON
Lewisham
A proposed extension of the Bakerloo line could do for this slightly forgotten outpost of south-east London what the extended East London line has done for Hoxton and Dalston.

Mayor Sadiq Khan is committed to the £3.6 billion project that would dramatically improve local transport links in an area currently reliant largely on buses and main line trains.

Meanwhile, housebuilders — presumably with the example of how Crossrail has triggered massive house growth — are investing heavily in Lewisham, adding modern flats to its current supply of affordable period houses and first-time buyer-friendly purpose-built flats.

Mitcham
Mitcham has plans for its future that could make it a useful option for buyers with imagination.

A £435 million plan to reinvent two local housing estates could be the boost the area has long needed.

WEST LONDON
Hounslow
Now that first-time buyers don’t have to pay stamp duty on homes valued up to £300,000, an unexpected spotlight has fallen on Hounslow, one of the few places left in London with homes that qualify for stamp duty exemption.

Thanks to all those Heathrow planes, Hounslow, on the Piccadilly line, has been a Cinderella neighbourhood for years. Now its fortunes are set to change thanks to a major regeneration programme.

One of the largest projects is the £410 million revamp of the former Hounslow Civic Centre site in Lampton Road. Notting Hill Housing is building 919 new homes across 10 buildings designed by architects Sheppard Robson. Half of the homes will be affordable, ring-fenced for those priced out of London’s property market.

Hanwell
Hanwell, often overshadowed by its bigger, louder and better-known neighbour Ealing, will enjoy the largest reduction in journey times of any station along the line. Services to Tottenham Court Road will take 15 minutes.

But unlike other regeneration zones, Hanwell is an established neighbourhood in its own right, so those buying into the area won’t have to wait for coffee shops and bars.

Brentford
This industrial backwater beside the Thames is getting a seriously transformative, multibillion-pound makeover.

As well as the Thames, the River Brent and Grand Union Canal run through Brentford and there will be thousands of new waterfront homes, many going on sale over the next year. The area will also get new restaurants, shops, cultural and sporting facilities.

NORTH-WEST LONDON
South Kilburn​
Located between Maida Vale and Queen's Park, South Kilburn is in the throes of a £600 million makeover that's replacing its council estate concrete blocks with inspiring designs from top architects.

Over the next 10 to 15 years, the estate will be replaced by 2,400 new homes to buy, rent and for shared ownership, rehabilitating this well-located no-go zone and turning it into an area buyers should get to know.

Brent Cross
The idea of a Garden Bridge over the Thames may have sunk without trace but a green bridge spanning the heaving lanes of the North Circular Road is planned for Brent Cross.

This landscaped walkway will link a new north London suburb — with thousands of new homes and a station offering fast Thameslink trains to the City — to the much-needed revamp of London’s oldest shopping centre. Although works on the bridge, plus the £1.4 billion reboot of Brent Cross Shopping Centre, were due to begin over the summer, they have now been pushed back to beyond 2019.

NORTH LONDON
Hornsey
Between Crouch End and Alexandra Palace, low-profile Hornsey offers period homes with potential, while fast commuter links and relative affordability are drawing billions of pounds of investment in thousands of new homes for young professionals and cash-constrained first-time buyers.