London’s busiest housing markets: the space race in full force

Research from London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, reveals which London boroughs have been the busiest in the past 12 months when it comes to the number of homes sold as a percentage of all private dwellings within each borough.

In the past 12 months, there have been 94,483 residential sales across London. Measured against a total private dwelling stock of 2.8 million homes that’s 3.3% of all London homes changing ownership in the past year.

On an individual borough-by-borough level, the busiest housing market in London is found in Havering. The Eastern borough has a total private dwelling stock of 88,998 and has generated 4,150 sales in the past year. This means that 4,663 in every 100,000 homes, or 4.7% of the entire market stock has been sold.

In a close second place, Bromley in the South East has seen a transaction rate of 4,484 in every 100,000 homes, meaning 4.5% of the entire stock has been sold in the past 12 months. This is followed by Wandsworth (4.3%), Richmond-upon-Thames (4.2%), and Lambeth (4.1%).

In contrast, the quietest housing market in London is found in The City of London. Just 1.9% of the borough’s homes have changed ownership this year. This is unsurprising in light of the fact that many people have stopped working in the city as a result of the pandemic therefore demand for central city homes has stuttered.

Westminster and Brent have also had very quiet housing markets. In both instances, just 2.1% of the dwelling stock has been sold in the last year, followed closely by Newham (2.3%) and Kensington & Chelsea (2.4%).

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented:

“It’s clear from our research that despite many homebuyers now heading back to the Capital, it’s the peripheral boroughs offering larger homes that continue to be the most popular.

It’s also interesting to see areas to the south of the river performing well and it seems that the lack of decent public transport links, often cited as a reason homebuyers want to stay north, is no longer the deterrent it once was.

Although again, this is certainly another result of  the government’s work from home guidance and we expect the traditionally popular central areas of London to start gaining momentum as normality returns.”