Chelsea Bloom on why Crouch End and Muswell Hill are outperforming expectations while the rest stagnates

By Chelsea Bloom

I cover North London business, which means I cover North London property whether I intend to or not, because North London property is to North London what weather is to the rest of the country: the unavoidable context in which all other activity occurs, the first topic at any dinner party, and the source of the particular anxiety that comes from owning an asset whose value defines your financial identity but which you cannot sell without also having nowhere to live.

The current market is doing something that estate agents are describing as “resilient” and “showing green shoots,” phrases that estate agents use when prices have not fallen as much as they feared, which is a different thing from prices being good. Crouch End and Muswell Hill, specifically, are performing in ways that the broader North London market is not, and the reasons are interesting if you are the kind of person who finds property market sociology interesting, which North Londoners universally are.

Why Crouch End and Muswell Hill Are Different

Both neighbourhoods share a combination of characteristics that high-rate-environment buyers prioritise: established school catchments (both are within range of several Outstanding-rated primary schools), walkable high streets with independent businesses that demonstrate the neighbourhood’s economic base, and a relative distance from major tube lines that paradoxically increases desirability among buyers who can work from home and do not need the commute infrastructure.

The work-from-home effect on North London property geography is real and documented. Neighbourhoods with good broadband infrastructure, larger average square footage per pound, and more green space have outperformed tube-corridor neighbourhoods that were premium pre-pandemic because of their commute value. Crouch End has no tube station. Muswell Hill has no tube station. Both have more park space per resident than most inner-London postcodes. Both are outperforming.

What the Numbers Show

Rightmove’s most recent borough-level data shows average asking prices in the N8 (Crouch End) and N10 (Muswell Hill) postcodes holding within 3-4 percent of their 2022 peaks, while the broader Haringey and Barnet averages have declined 8-12 percent over the same period. The gap is explained partly by the demographics of the buyer pool — these are more owner-occupier markets with less buy-to-let exposure, meaning fewer distressed sellers responding to mortgage rate increases — and partly by the characteristics I described above.

The Rightmove house price data is publicly searchable by postcode. The Zoopla market intelligence provides additional transaction-level data. What the numbers do not show is the subjective geography of desirability that the numbers ultimately track. Chelsea Bloom covers North London business at prat.uk.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com