Buyers are drawn to Walthamstow, where East End meets high end

After two separate buyers tried to negotiate down offers they had already made on her two-bedroom flat and then losing out on the house she had hoped to buy, Jacqui concludes that this year it’s been a market of “unstable” chains in Walthamstow, a suburb in east London. 

“We tried to move last year but the market was moving so fast we were getting outbid by tens of thousands of pounds on homes,” says the management consultant, who prefers not to use her full name. “Now the problem is deals falling through. But after 10 months of it we’re hoping to exchange on a four-bedroom house that we got for under the asking price — because of another buyer dropping out.”

As fraught as the past two years have been, she says there was never a shortage of interest in their flat, which was for sale at £550,000. Young professionals such as Jacqui and her husband like Walthamstow for its relative affordability, transport links and its proximity to the 6,000-acre Epping Forest.

And in a London market paralysed by inactivity, Walthamstow is faring better than most, with 54 per cent of the homes for sale in the area under offer, according to the data analyst PropCast. Though numbers are down on last year, this is the joint-highest proportion in the capital, where the average is 33 per cent (Leytonstone’s E11 postcode and Highbury’s N5 are also at 54 per cent).

“No one’s selling speculatively, no one’s moving unless they need to, so what we have now are only serious buyers,” says Richard Maher of local agent Central Estates, adding that Walthamstow attracts those priced out of Hackney, Dalston or Finsbury Park. 

Those buyers compete for the area’s popular Warner homes, purpose-built Victorian flats with their own front doors. Last week, such a two-bedroom flat for sale at £500,000 received 25 viewings, four offers and a sale agreed at £545,000, says Kenny Goad of estate agent The Stow Brothers. “Two-bedroom properties, especially those with the potential to extend, are the most sought-after.” He says this is one of the 18 per cent of their 160-plus properties currently for sale that are rental properties being sold off by landlords who own one or two properties in the area. “The flipside of this is that our lettings team now have such a shortage of properties they have tenants on the phone crying.”

For buyers with a budget from £600,000 upwards for a house, it’s one of the areas of London with a bit more edge than the commuter belt. Craig and his partner had been renting a flat in Bloomsbury, central London, and were thinking of relocating to Surrey. But then “we realised we weren’t ready to give up the buzz of London life,” says Craig, who works for a global tech company and declined to give his surname.

They bought a two-bedroom Victorian house within a five-minute walk of Orford Road for “slightly over” the asking price this year. “When we first visited we didn’t like the part we saw [east of Walthamstow Central station], with lots of chicken shops and convenience stores, but then we found Orford Road, in the ‘village’, with interesting independents and pubs,” he says.

Property prices tend to be highest around Orford Road, the Lloyd Park conservation area or Upper Walthamstow where houses can top £1mn. But this year only 2 per cent of E17’s homes have sold for that, according to Hamptons using Land Registry data. The average house price is £683,470, about the same as what it was last year — but 23 per cent up on pre-pandemic prices.

Looking for homes around £750,000, Rhiannon King and her partner picked the Higham Hill area, near Blackhorse Road station. “After renting in Clapham [south London], we liked the feel of the area with its warehouses of wineries and craft breweries,” says King, who works in PR, of the so-called Blackhorse Beer Mile. “We nearly gave up trying to buy in 2021 when we kept bumping into the same couples at Saturday morning house viewings. But we finally found a [suitable] house. It’s not the prettiest part of London but it’s got so much heart.”

Flush with professional renters, it’s long been popular with buy-to-let investors, yet John Williams of agent Portico is also seeing many selling up. “Rising mortgage rates are forcing landlords to leave every month,” he says.

After letting a two-bedroom flat near St James Street station bought 11 years ago for £290,000, Jonathan Stevenson is selling it with an asking price of £400,000. “My 3 per cent fixed rate deal is ending in the spring. I won’t increase the rent because of my tax liability so it’s no longer viable,” he says. The flat went under offer within four weeks.

Rachel Sedgwick, who commutes to a financial consultancy in Liverpool Street, found her only way to escape flat-sharing was to buy a one-bedroom flat near Lloyd Park through Pocket Living, a developer selling discounted homes to local first-time buyers. “All my neighbours are also in their thirties and it’s very sociable. The area has really evolved,” she says, citing “a new CrossFit gym, pop-up theatre, gin bars”.

Walthamstow’s former Empire cinema closed permanently this summer, but next year the Soho Theatre is due to reopen on Hoe Street after a £30mn redevelopment. Another local venue, The Standard, in Blackhorse Road, is set to be reopen with new flats above it. “There’s now an international music scene, great street art and small galleries alongside the old ‘East End’ feel,” sums up Holly Fishwick, who set up the Instagram account @everything_e17. “A nice blend of high street and high end.” 

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