Move down the line: where to live along London Central line to save on rent and benefit from Crossrail, too

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Ruth Bloomfield2 May 2018

By the end of the year a new regal purple line will be added to the Tube map. The Elizabeth line, slicing east to west across the capital, has been a tremendous boost to house prices around its stations — an outperforming 39 per cent in the last three years, according to a recent Lloyds Bank study.

While the Crossrail bounce has priced out many buyers coming late to the party, renters can still live in key locations along the line without breaking the bank, and will be able to reap the benefits of new, fast journeys to the centre of London, the City, Canary Wharf, and Heathrow.

A new report by Rightmove has assessed the cost of renting a two-bedroom flat and a three-bedroom house at stops on the Central line, which closely mirrors the trajectory of the Elizabeth line. It found a wide variety of prices along the line and reveals that major savings can be made by simply moving a stop or two further down the line, or even by opting to rent a house rather than a flat.

WEST LONDON

Acton has three stops on the Central line: West, North, and East, all of which are within easy reach of Acton Main Line station where Crossrail services will stop.

Of the three, North Acton, in Zone 2, is the most affordable. A typical two-bedroom flat costs just over £1,500 a month, while an average three-bedroom house costs just over £2,100.

The other west London Crossrail hotspot to consider is Ealing Broadway, although it is more expensive than any of the Actons despite being in Zone 3. A two-bedroom flat costs about £1,950 a month and a three-bedroom house almost £2,800.

EAST LONDON

In east London there are few locations with transport links to match Stratford’s multiple lines — Jubilee, Central, Docklands Light Railway, and Overground services right now, and Crossrail to come, all in Zone 2.

Rents on its flats, mostly new, are fairly stiff. A two-bedroom flat costs an average £1,781 a month. But for sharers, a house in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium could work out much better value. A three-bedroom house rents at an average £1,821.

Charlotte Russell, associate director of property company JLL, says the typical Stratford renter is a young professional after quick links to their offices in Canary Wharf or the City. “We have got a lot of new companies moving into London like Facebook and Amazon and the transport links from here work very well to their offices, too,” she adds.

Recently, however, Russell has noticed an increasing number of family renters adopting Stratford, not only for its value-for-money houses but for its green space and the great sports facilities within the Olympic Park.

Shopping, obviously, is taken care of by the mammoth Westfield mall, and Russell says Stratford also has a surprising number of smaller family-run shops and restaurants to explore. And it is of course within walking distance of the bars and restaurants of adjacent Hackney Wick.

A single stop further east from Stratford is the increasingly fashionable option of Leyton. The extra expense of travelling from Zone 3 needs to be set against considerably lower costs: a typical two-bedroom flat is more than £100 a week cheaper than in Stratford, at an average £1,333 a month, although three-bedroom houses are only marginally better value at £1,725 a month.

£646 per week: a five-bedroom end-of-terrace house to rent in Crawley Road, Leyton, E10

Tony Strover, a director of Allen Davies estate agents, says the price differential on flats can be put down to the age of the properties on offer. Leyton’s stock is mostly Victorian conversions while Stratford’s is shiny new build with trendy facilities.

“A lot of the modern buildings have a concierge and a gym and people pay a premium for that kind of living,” he adds. However, if a gym in the basement isn’t an essential, Leyton is perhaps a more interesting option for renters.

Strover has seen the area change exponentially over the last five years as a ripple of Londoners priced out of more expensive parts of east London have moved in.

“A lot of young singles have moved into Leyton — when I started as an agent in 1998 you would have had to pay them to come here — and that has had a knock-on effect on the new businesses coming to the area,” says Strover.

“There are new restaurants, shops and quirky little cafés. The area has changed for the better.”

EALING RENTS ARE A BIT HIGHER BUT IT’S GROWN-UP, LIKE US

Having abandoned more fashionable Clapham, where he rented a house with friends for a bargain £500a month, Bogdan Marinescu has been living in Ealing Broadway for the past year.

Happy in Ealing: Bogdan Marinescu and girlfriend Chiara Molena 
Juliet Murphy

The choice was partly practical. Ealing is midway between his office and that of his girlfriend Chiara Molena. In terms of value for money, the couple’s one-bedroom flat costs them £1,200 a month. “Something similar in Clapham would have been £1,400-£1,500 a month,” says Bogdan.

He adds that he had begun to outgrow Clapham’s frenetic atmosphere. Aged 33, he is head of public relations at Greenlight Digital, while Chiara, 30, is brand manager for a spirits company.

“Clapham is a bit more ‘party out in the street’, a bit more hectic,” Bogdan explains. “Ealing has more young couples with kids, but not too many. It is more cosmopolitan and perhaps a bit less gentrified. It has got lots of independent restaurants and cafés, while Clapham is almost all chains.”

In the market: Ealing has five, from antiques to farmers' markets
Alamy Stock Photo

Although cost was a big driver in the couple’s decision to move out of Clapham, they would not, says Bogdan, consider upping sticks to North Acton, which is crisscrossed by railway tracks and very light on bars and restaurants.

“I am at that point in life where I am happy to pay a little bit of a premium in order to enjoy an area,” he says. “Ealing is very, very well serviced, and you do get a lot more for the higher rents.”