Old Avenue in leafy Weybridge, Surrey, tops the list of the most expensive streets to buy a home outside the capital. Annabel Dixon discovers which other addresses made the cut.
Top 5 most expensive streets outside London
Old Avenue in Weybridge has been crowned the most expensive street to buy a home outside London. The average price tag of a mansion on the road in the swanky Surrey commuter town is a cool £2,633,333, according to Rightmove.
This six-bedroom house on Old Avenue (also pictured top) is on sale for £4,950,000 via Knight Frank
Little surprise really — the area is well known as a celebrity enclave. Old Avenue itself is a stone’s throw from St George’s Hill, an exclusive estate that the likes of John Lennon and Tom Jones called home. It is also close to a cluster of top golf courses and Brooklands Museum, known as the birthplace of British motorsport.
So sought-after is this spot, in fact, that one somewhat run-down house is currently being sold not as a home in need of refurbishment, but as a bare plot. A bare plit with a £5.5m price tag.
‘Substantial plot on the St George’s Hill estate with sensational 180° views,’ say agents Savills, completely ignoring the fact that there’s already a house here, and also that permission is not yet in place for the knock-down and rebuild that a new owner is expected to embark upon. Fascinating — see more via the listing for £5.5m via Savills.
Commuter towns dominate the property portal’s list of the most expensive streets to buy outside the capital. The Ridgeway in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, comes in second, where sprawling properties are typically worth £2,289,286.
A five-bedroom home on Old Avenue currently on the market for £3,499,950 via Curchods and Savills
Manor Road in Chigwell, Essex (£2,219,444), Swithland Lane in Rothley, Leicestershire (£2,024,000), and Norsey Road in Billericay, Essex (£1,800,000), complete the top five ranking.
When it comes to the most expensive streets to rent outside the capital, London Road in Ascot Berkshire, takes the top spot. Average monthly rents on the street stand at an average £6,831.
It is followed by Manor Road in Chigwell (£4,311 per month), the only place that has made it into the top five most expensive streets outside London to both buy and rent.
A five-bedroom house for rent on London Road in Ascot, Berkshire, via Knight Frank
The other addresses in the ranking are Deansgate in Manchester (£3,766 per month), Holloway Drive in Virginia Water, Surrey (£2,986 per month), and Ingrave Road in Brentwood, Essex (£2,898 per month).
The property portal also took a look at the most expensive streets in the UK including London, and all were, predictably, in swish central areas.
Supply of £1.5 million+ homes exceeds demand
Prime properties could take longer to sell as the volume of £1,500,000-plus homes hitting the market outstrips buying appetite, warns property data firm TwentyCi.
The level of high-end homes put up for sale in the first three months of the year has climbed by 16% year-on-year. Yet buyer demand increased by a more modest 7%.
‘It’s likely many owners of super-premium homes decided to sell after becoming more realistic on price expectations,’ explains Colin Bradshaw, CEO of TwentyCi. ‘However, with surplus super-premium homes coming to market with an unmatched demand, these high-end properties will take longer to sell.’
The research also reveals that the number of homes worth £1,000,000 or more across the UK has fallen by 6.1% (68,000).
Bradshaw adds: ‘In general, all of the declining numbers originated within the south of England, but notably, this is where 87% of all £1m+ properties are located.’
Most £1.5m+ homes in Britain are in the south-east — but not all: this £1.95m beauty is for sale in Cornwall via Strutt & Parker, with six bedrooms and seven acres.
Thousands of would-be house buyers giving up hope of home ownership until ‘at least’ their 40s
At the other end of the housing market, the cost-of-living crisis has scuppered many first-time buyers’ plans to buy a home, according to a Nationwide Building Society poll.
Some 84% of the 1,000 first-time buyers surveyed claim that the cost-of-living crisis has impacted their home-owning ambitions. And around half (48%) say their prospects of owning a home are now ‘further away than ever’.
It means that one in five first-time buyers expect to be in their 40s when they buy their first home. Quite a jump from the current average first-time buyer age of 33.
The one thing that will prompt 93% of buyers to slash their offer
A new survey by eXp UK has confirmed what we already know: first impressions count.
An overwhelming 93% of buyers would reduce their offer for a home if it had a shabby exterior. And almost a third (29%) of buyers would walk away from a poorly-presented property without even viewing the rest of it.
According to the survey, an unloved garden and nuisance neighbours are the two biggest things that make a bad first impression. Although quite how buyers could suss out dodgy neighbours in the short space of a house viewing is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they’re knocking on the doors pretending to have just moved in, and seeing what sort of reception they get? Come to think of it, this probably isn’t a bad idea.
Other big turn-offs, incidentally, include a dated exterior, run-down windows, and disused vehicles blocking the driveway. Who knew that the rusting heap with no wheels on the driveway would be a bad sign, eh?
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