Friday 02 August 2019 7:00 am | Updated: Thursday 01 August 2019 5:27 pm

Focus on London Fields: The attractive Hackney suburb buyers don’t want to leave

People relax on the grass in London Fields — London Fields has experienced a huge growth in popularity in the last 20 years – and house prices have followed suit

Homeowners who bet on London Fields 20 years ago are some of the canniest in the capital.

Then, homes in the leafy-for-Hackney neighbourhood were worth 17 per cent more than the London average, according to Hamptons International – but today that has jumped to a huge 52 per cent, translating to £240,000.

“Once an unloved suburb of Hackney, today London Fields has become the new home for families, young couples and professionals,” says Marsh & Parsons’ Simon Vaughan.

It’s not hard to see why. The area boasts an 11-minute commute to Liverpool Street via London Overground, and prime streets such as Albion Square and Lavender Grove are home to some of the prettiest housing stock in Hackney. The heated London Fields Lido and eponymous park are a draw for families, and Broadway Market is the perfect place for the hipster crowd to get their Saturday morning sourdough.

Buyers pay a premium

Flats account for around two-thirds of the housing available in London Fields, with the remainder largely made up of Georgian and Victorian terraces.

“Once people find London Fields, they tend not to want to leave,” says Bradley Suter of Savills’ Hackney office, adding that buyers pay a premium of 30 per cent against the wider Hackney market to secure a home there.

The average flat will set you back around £506,000 according to Zoopla, and those seeking a terraced house will need to double that, paying an average of £1.02m. This means that second-steppers wanting to stay local might need to “look a little further east for the value and the space that they want,” according to Suter.

Prices have dropped off a little in the last year, with the all-property average falling by £40,000 to £785,547 in the 12 months to April 2019, according to Savills – but this is broadly in line with the fall experienced across the capital as a whole.

The most prominent new build in the area is Union Developments’ industrial-style Monohaus apartment block on Mare Street, where eight three-bed apartments and two duplex penthouses are still available, with prices starting at £799,000 and £1.05m respectively. The development is home to London’s first POPfit fitness studio, which was co-founded by actress Kate Hudson.

You won’t feel quite as smug as those who took a punt on the area 20 years ago – but there are still plenty of reasons to buy in London Fields.