Real Estate

Notting Hill: back in fashion


In the early 2000s, Notting Hill was the place to be. More than just the location of a certain film, the hip enclave with its celebrity inhabitants and its beautiful historic houses made the west London postcode one of the most sought after to live in.

Now, Notting Hill may be experiencing something of a renaissance on the party scene, with new private members’ club Laylow opening to the north on Golborne Road late last year. Founded by artist Taz Fustok, Laylow is open to local creatives, with prospective members being asked questions such as “What was the last live act you saw” as a test of credentials.

Still, there are some familiar faces among the clientele. This month the David Beckham-fronted whisky brand Haig chose Laylow for its Christmas event, which was co-hosted by Kate Moss’s former partner Jefferson Hack and attended by Sadie Frost, Guy Ritchie and Brooklyn Beckham.

The party lifestyle isn’t the only thing to bounce back. This year, house price growth in Notting Hill turned positive for the first time after a straight 33 months of decline. According to Knight Frank, prices in Notting Hill grew 2.2 per cent in the year to May, making it the fastest growing area in London — though growth has slowed since.

At the same time, local agents are reporting an uptick in transaction numbers. According to LonRes, sales in 2018 were 3 per cent higher than last year — though are still 34 per cent below their peak. In the year to October, 22 homes priced above £5m sold; the year before, there were seven.

Agents blame changes to stamp duty — which first increased the tax bill on all homes priced above £937,500 and then added a 3 per cent premium on second homes — and uncertainty over Brexit for holding the market back.

“Buyers are taking a longer-term view on their acquisitions,” says Caroline Foord, head of Knight Frank’s local office. Oliver Lurot, head of sales at Savills Notting Hill, agrees. “Last year there was a lot of hesitation from buyers looking at the super-prime end: properties over £10m,” he says. “There have been a number of very special houses come up on the market which have motivated buyers to just get on with it.”

Many big-ticket sales are happening off-market, which means their asking prices are never publicly disclosed and they do not appear on sites such as Right­move and Zoopla — which publish information such as the number of days the property has spent on market and any reduction in the guide price. As such, it is unclear whether buyers are stumping up the cash, or sellers are prepared to slash their expectations. According to Knight Frank, nearly 30 per cent of its sales in Notting Hill are now off-market, with more than 60 per cent of those being properties with access to communal gardens.

“A lot of the off-market sales are at the higher end of the market, and the people involved like to keep a low profile — both buyers and sellers,” Lurot says.

Some properties that have sold in the past year have all come from one seller. Developer Graham Hedger has been working in the area for more than 20 years and claims to have sold more than £100m worth of stock there over the past year. He says he chose to focus on Notting Hill because “it’s quite frankly a lovely place to live. It’s not a fad, whereas there are some areas in London that I think might be that.”

Another reason might be the abundance of larger homes. “It’s actually quite hard to find reasonable sized houses and homes in London. If you go to Fulham they tend to be 2,500-3,000 sq ft. If you go to Chiswick, they can be even smaller. In Notting Hill, they tend to have these larger houses of 4,000-5,000 sq ft. All the houses I’ve sold for premium prices in a difficult market [are bigger].”

On Lonsdale Road, Savills is selling a five-bedroom house with more than 6,000 sq ft of living space, for £14.95m — the property was first listed a year ago for £17.5m. Knight Frank is selling a five-bedroom house on Ladbroke Terrace, with more than 5,740 sq ft of space for £10.5m.

For more modest budgets, Winkworth is selling a two-bedroom apartment on Westbourne Grove Mews for £925,000 — though, at 642 sq ft, one wonders if Hedger would consider it “reasonably sized”.

Five-bedroom house on Lonsdale Road, £14.95m

Buying guide

  • Prices in Notting Hill are still 17.5 per cent down on their peak in March 2014
  • In the year to April, 88 homes priced above £2m sold in Notting Hill, up from 84 the year before
  • Journeys from Notting Hill Gate to the City take about 20 minutes, if you can brave the Circle Line

What you can buy for . . .

£550,000 A small one-bedroom basement flat

£1.5m A smart two-bedroom flat in a stucco-fronted building

£12m A five-bedroom house, recently refurbished and with access to a communal garden

More homes at propertylistings.ft.com

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