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People buying homes in London 500 metres from a tube or railway station pay £42,700 more than buyers of similar properties 1,500 metres away from transport hubs, according to new data.
The figures indicate that despite the reshaping of the housing market sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and dramatic changes to working patterns, the traditional estate agent mantra of “good transport links” continues to wield its power over buyers.
The study from the Nationwide building society studied the value that buyers and renters place on being close to rail, underground and tram services in London, Manchester and Glasgow.
The data may provide fresh evidence that some of the pandemic-fuelled property market trends have gone into reverse, in part as some white-collar workers gradually return to predominantly working in the office.
Nationwide said its recent market research confirmed that transport links remained important to those living in major cities, with more than 80% of Londoners saying that being near a station was either “fairly important” or “very important” when choosing to buy or rent their current property.
In Manchester and Glasgow, about 60% of respondents stated that being near a rail station, Metrolink tram stop or underground station was either fairly or very important.
This is likely to reflect that those living in London typically use their local station more often: nearly 60% catch a train or use the tube more than once a week compared with 37% for those who use equivalent services in Glasgow and 35% in Manchester.
London homebuyers continue to pay a “significant premium” to be close to a station – according to the research, which studied the tube, Docklands Light Railway, London Overground, Elizabeth line and National Rail stations.
The extra amount buyers are willing to pay increases the closer to a tube or railway station the property is located. The researchers found that a property situated 500 metres from a station commanded an 8% premium – amounting to about £42,700 based on average prices in London – over an identical or very similar property 1,500 metres from a station.
This was broadly in line with just before the pandemic, when this premium was 8.6%.
There was a £10,900, or 4.9%, house price premium in Greater Manchester, and an £8,800 premium (4.6%) in Glasgow, on a comparable basis.
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Nationwide’s most recent data put the average cost of a UK home at £271,000, and the typical cost of a London property at £532,500.
Commenting on the figures Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and a former residential chair of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: “The pandemic accelerated trends which were starting to happen anyway, and the increase in working from home certainly made a difference to where people chose to buy and rent for quite a long time.
“However, that trend is slowly starting to reverse as people return to work – not quite to the levels before Covid but certainly approaching [them].
“These figures reflect that trend to some extent, although of course the cost of property and transport are other factors.”
Separate research by the HomeOwners Alliance, a property advice website, revealed that 1.2 million UK homeowners aged 55 and above had put plans to move on hold during the past two years despite initially considering it, and that a shortage of bungalows was “a major issue”.
