The Waitrose effect: Living near to the supermarket can double your house price
We all know that properties near good schools can command higher than average prices – but what about your local supermarket?
If you're lucky enough to live within walking distance of a Waitrose, your home is likely to benefit from an uplift to your house price, new research from Emoov claims.
It's not clear what is the cause and what is the effect – after all the premium supermarket is, by its nature, more commonly found in affluent areas. But properties surrounding a Waitrose are worth on average £456,000 – more than double the UK average of £221,254 – and prices rose seven per cent last year.
Read more: Are you a Waitrose Wendy or a Tesco Tracey?
Emoov clearly believes the "Waitrose effect" is real. The online estate agent quotes a resident of Poynton, in Cheshire, saying: “I thought we were making real progress as a community with the opening of Waitrose in 2012, however with the opening of Aldi I feel as though we are taking a step back into the lower class.”
As evidence, it cites a number of addresses where houses sharing the first half of a postcode with a Waitrose outpaced house price growth in the rest of the town or city.
Waitrose-boosted prices in Upminster, for example, rose 10 per cent compared with three per cent for the city as a whole.
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The most expensive properties near to a Waitrose are – unsurprisingly – in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average property near to one of the John Lewis Partnership supermarkets comes out as £2.6m, and prices grew at five per cent.