Britain’s most expensive streets
There are now more than 11,000 streets in Britain where the average property price exceeds £1m, according to new figures.
The top ten most expensive of those are found across some of London’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, according to Zoopla’s 2021 Rich List findings. And while some streets have maintained the top spots for several years, The Boltons in southwest Kensington, Frognal Way in Hampstead and Chelsea’s Carlyle Square appear on the list for the first time this year.
For the 13th consecutive year, Kensington Palace Gardens has been named as the UK’s most expensive street. “At first glance, there is nothing overtly ostentatious about this quiet road”, reported The Guardian when one of its reporters paid a visit in 2014. “There are no yellow Lamborghinis or Hummers blasting music” along the quiet road, which is guarded by security. In fact, you’re unlikely to find the “invisible” residents, the reporter found, but “their staff can be seen”.
With properties averaging £29.9m, Kensington Palace Gardens is home to billionaires and oligarchs, with royalty just around the corner at Kensington Palace itself. “Some of the houses verge on hideous”, and there is a “marked absence of any sense of community”. But perhaps prospective residents will be drawn in by the “Narnia-style lamp posts”, avenues of trees and “the scent of frangipani” that lingers in the air.
Courtenay Avenue and Compton Avenue feature some of Hampstead and Highgate’s “most exclusive homes”, said the Financial Times. The former ranks second in the list, and the latter comes in at number eight, with properties averaging about £9.2m cheaper than Courtenay’s typical price tag of £19.4m. The “prestigious private cul-de-sac” is just across the road from Kenwood House and Hampstead Heath, and security staff monitor access to the street “24 hours a day, seven days a week”, according to the Ham & High.
Third on the rich list is Belgravia’s Grosvenor Crescent. “Despite the eye-watering prices” of an average £17.2m, most of the 19th-century street’s properties are flats, not houses, noted the Daily Mail. Even so, a security guard for one told the paper in 2014 that the homes are “big, very big”. Underground parking, gyms and swimming pools are among the amenities residents enjoy, according to the Mail.
House prices on Kensington's Ilchester Place have fluctuated somewhat over the years, according to data collated by Lloyds Bank, but the street still comes in fourth on Zoopla’s rankings with a property costing £15.2m on average. The nearby Cottesmore Gardens comes in ninth too, at just under £10m per property.
Outside the M25, streets in Surrey and Berkshire are likely to come with the heftiest property price tags. Titlarks Hill in Ascot, Berkshire has knocked streets in Surrey’s Leatherhead from the top spot into second place this year. Properties on the “mega-wealthy road” come with “huge gardens and a lot of parking space”, said Berkshire Live. However, there is “not a noticeable amount of swimming pools” to be seen from an aerial perspective – “but that’s probably because these homes have them indoors”.
Montrose Gardens in Leatherhead was previously top of the list for streets outside London, and house prices now average £7m, compared to Titlarks Hill at £8.4m. Five of the top ten streets are located in Virginia Water, a town with good connections to London, picturesque countryside, and renowned schools, according to one estate agent from the area. Another attraction will undoubtedly be the Wentworth Club, a prestigious golf club with a “deep history”, where everyone from Ryder Cup champions to celebrities has teed up, The New York Times noted.
Article source and reference by M Starling