It is common knowledge that over the past 20 years the property prices in London have almost quadrupled. But let’s analyse the price change in Rotherhithe, Surrey Quays, Canada Water and Bermondsey SE16 over the last five years.
We have taken in consideration all properties sold between 2014 and 2015 and re-sold in 2019/20.
Photo by Alex & Matteo: Rotherhithe – Greenland Quay
In our field there have always been investors that believe new buildings are not the best in terms of capital growth in the short term, however let’s take into consideration one of those apartments in Marine Wharf: one of the last developments that, alongside Greenland Place, has been a protagonist in the regeneration of the area in between Surrey Quays and Deptford.
We are talking about a small first floor one bedroom apartment in Cleveley Court sold at £330,125 in April 2016. It sold again in January 2020 for £372,000, enjoying a growth of 12.68%.
Another one bedroom apartment set within the same development, Royal Victoria Gardens, sold for £272,600 in December 2015, and was resold in January 2020 for £395,000, achieving a 44.9% growth.
Moving from that area, let’s take into consideration more dated properties in the north Bermondsey area. A property that sold in April 2015 in Neckinger Estate at £280,000 went on to sell for £321,500 in December 2019 (+14.8%).
In the Spa Road area, in Woodmill Street, a modern unit sold at £615,000 in March 2015 and re-sold in January this year at £697,500 (+13.4% ).
And again, a two bedroom apartment in Weald Close, South Bermondsey, sold in September 2015 at £257,000 and went on to re-sell in December 2019 up 43% at £368,750.
Honing in on the area surrounding Canada Water, in Baltic Court the same apartment that sold in 2015 at £382,500 went for £408,000 in December 2019 (+6%)
That tell us that although the prices didn’t sky-rocket like they did in the previous five years (2010-15), and despite the political and economic uncertainty of the last few years, prices still went up and sellers saw good returns in our neighbourhoods.
Looking at the house price index in Southwark local authority, taken as a whole, prices achieved in January 2020 are 11% higher than in 2015 (+18.26% in SE16) compared with a negative – 6.3% in Kensington and Chelsea.
Behind these numbers there is an underlying change of our neighbourhood, as we have highlighted in some of our previous blogs. There is of course debate as to whether the changes are “good”, but as far as the property market is concerned, we are seeing positive and steady momentum that has benefitted many.
What will the property market be like post Covid-19 in SE16? This is the million dollar question that everyone in the sector would like to have the answer to. Of course we don’t have a crystal ball, but we believe that in light of what is happening in this particular area of London – the Cycle Superhighway, the recently approved Grosvenor residential project at the Biscuit Factory, the regeneration of Canada Water by British Land, just to mention few – let us hope only an increasing number of people will want to move in this beautiful part of town with a consequent increase in demand for properties to rent and buy.
Alex & Matteo Estate Agents