Stratford. Good Or Bad

[Kevin]

Hi,

I am looking for a 2-3 bedroom flat around London. No particular area.

I found there are a large number of new developments in Stratford for sale in a relatively low price (under 300K for two beds). Can someone let me know why flat price in Stratford stays relatively low compared to other places in London?

Will the 2012 Olympics push the flat price high in Stratford?

[RentingForever]

Hi,

I am looking for a 2-3 bedroom flat around London. No particular area.

I found there are a large number of new developments in Stratford for sale in a relatively low price (under 300K for two beds). Can someone let me know why flat price in Stratford stays relatively low compared to other places in London?

Will the 2012 Olympics push the flat price high in Stratford?

Because it's awful.

I visited the "University" (of East London) there a few weeks back, and expected the place to be bright and shiny with all the Olympics money going into it. Unfortunately all that money seems to be going on the station and the Olympic Park, and none on the area. Basically, turn left outside the station for the Olympics, turn right for an East London hellhole.

Maybe they should put that on the tickets - "Olympics 2012 - For God's Sake, Don't Turn Right".

[Unsafe As Houses]

£300k for a flat is cheap?

Much of Stratford is essentially an immigrant ghetto.

I find the argument that the 2012 olympics will have a long-term beneficial effect on the area and increase house prices wholly unconvincing.

Check out Green Street in Stratford - I heard that the street is full of houses where the tenants/owners have illegally converted their garages into houses.

[TeddyBear]

It's rough and I imagine there is an over supply of flats there. Despite East London being the place to be for youngsters these days, Stratford does not fall into the Hoxton/Hackney/Dalston vibe. It's more an area where new immigrant families will be looking for larger housing than 2 bed slave boxes with open plan kitchen/living.

Stratford station has excellent links and Eurostar will be going there and Westfield opening so things may improve. It very much feels like an area representing the new immimgrant communities when I've been there recently. So a lot will perhaps also turn on how these communities develop and if they gentrify.

[Kevin]

Hi thanks for the reply.

I don't think £300K for a 2 bed flat is cheap at all. However, compare the flat price in Hampstead....... I counldn't afford even a 1 bed there in Hampstead

I had been living in Manchester for years and just came to London in 2007. I only have a very basic understanding about London house price.

Can you give me some suggestions about where to invest my first home in London?

Many thanks.

[Unsafe As Houses]

Hi thanks for the reply.

I don't think £300K for a 2 bed flat is cheap at all. However, compare the flat price in Hampstead....... I counldn't afford even a 1 bed there in Hampstead

I had been living in Manchester for years and just came to London in 2007. I only have a very basic understanding about London house price.

Can you give me some suggestions about where to invest my first home in London?

Many thanks.

I sympathise with your situation. If I were you I'd wait for a bit and look to buy maybe at the end of 2012, but, of course, it depends on your budget and personal circumstances. I'd say 99% of posters on here would advocate not buying a house in 2011.

As I said, my personal opinion is that the olympic games will have little effect on house prices in stratford in the long-term. I'd stay clear of Newham altogether - but the choice is yours. I can't see the most ethnically diverse area of the country by far becoming the place where large numbers of people with a bit of monery would want to live in just a few years. I once did some statistical work with demographic data of Newham: data on locations of JSA claimants, mulri-occ housing, ethnic minorities, immigrants, etc. It did not look a desirable place to live.

Good luck!

[barbarossa]

It's rough and I imagine there is an over supply of flats there. Despite East London being the place to be for youngsters these days, Stratford does not fall into the Hoxton/Hackney/Dalston vibe. It's more an area where new immigrant families will be looking for larger housing than 2 bed slave boxes with open plan kitchen/living.

Stratford station has excellent links and Eurostar will be going there and Westfield opening so things may improve. It very much feels like an area representing the new immimgrant communities when I've been there recently. So a lot will perhaps also turn on how these communities develop and if they gentrify.

Stratford isn't getting Eurostar - although trains may stop there during the Olympics. However, Deutsche Bahn are thinking about running services to Germany within a few years.

We've lived up the road in Leytonstone for eight or so years, and love it. E11 is a nicer area (though not without problems - this is East London) and very good value for money - you can get a two-bed house with garden for less than 300K. It's safe, friendly and there's a lot of cultural events. There are some great restaurants and a gastropub is opening next month. If I were looking in East London, I'd choose Leytonstone over Stratford any day.

Having said that, Stratford has definitely improved in the time I've known it - for a start, it's much cleaner and there are noticeably fewer nutters and a lot more 'normal' people around than when I first came here eight years ago. I've also notice that even Leyton is a bit better than it was.

The single biggest physical difference to the area will be after the Olympics, when the new park is open.

Edited February 10, 2011 by barbarossa

[chicker]

Stratford isn't getting Eurostar - although trains may stop there during the Olympics. However, Deutsche Bahn are thinking about running services to Germany within a few years.

We've lived up the road in Leytonstone for eight or so years, and love it. E11 is a nicer area (though not without problems - this is East London) and very good value for money - you can get a two-bed house with garden for less than 300K. It's safe, friendly and there's a lot of cultural events. There are some great restaurants and a gastropub is opening next month. If I were looking in East London, I'd choose Leytonstone over Stratford any day.

Having said that, Stratford has definitely improved in the time I've known it - for a start, it's much cleaner and there are noticeably fewer nutters and a lot more 'normal' people around than when I first came here eight years ago. I've also notice that even Leyton is a bit better than it was.

The single biggest physical difference to the area will be after the Olympics, when the new park is open.

Where are the great restaurants ? 300k for a 2 bed in e11 a bloody bargain ! Ten years ago a 3 bed was 200kish. Just illustrates how prices have gone mad.

[barbarossa]

Where are the great restaurants ? 300k for a 2 bed in e11 a bloody bargain ! Ten years ago a 3 bed was 200kish. Just illustrates how prices have gone mad.

Singburi,The Olive and Ichiban to name three. The Singburi in particular is one of the best places I've ever eaten. We could definitely stand to lose a few chicken shops, mind.

Ten years ago you'd have struggled to find anything (Wanstead borders and Upper Leytonstone apart) costing more than 175K, whatever it was. Leytonstone is ten minutes from the City and twenty from the West End (if the Central Line's doing its job) - it's not surprising that prices have gone up, but it's still cheap. The streets in the bit where we live are full of skips and builder's wagons at the moment. It's not Islington, but it is improving.

Edited February 11, 2011 by barbarossa

[Neverland]

Leytonstone is ten minutes from the City and twenty from the West End (if the Central Line's doing its job) - it's not surprising that prices have gone up, but it's still cheap. The streets in the bit where we live are full of skips and builder's wagons at the moment. It's not Islington, but it is improving.

The transport and the cheap availability of houses have always been big pluses

The new Westfield and the olympic spending are a plus too

But its going up from a very low base

If you don't mind the real risk of being mugged going home at night its probably okay

Also the legacy of a lot of olympic games has been mixed and it will definately result in a lot of ex-Olympic village flats going on the market in 2013-2014

[Rachman]

Stratford is cheap because large parts of it are a dirty filthy hole - and as said, you will need to like the sounds, smells and sights of the developing world - and traffic.

It's a dump that won't regenerate unless some German with a moustache comes along as finishes the job of his forebears.

If you know Manchester, think of Curry Mile and round Platt Lane - you'd have to be insane to buy there as well.

And buying a shoebox newbuild there is about as sensible as going bareback on a Bombay whore.

[Kevin]

Hi,

Thanks all for your reply.

I am now looking a property in outter London (within M25). Can you name a few good towns in outter London? It could be west, south west, or north London.

Many thanks

[Boon]

The old Stratford is a dump, and will always remain so. Anything East or North-East of the station will struggle to change over the next few years. Going South-East towards Bow station along the High Street, there might be change - as there's lots of high-rise shiny new apartments coming up, and I think once they are done, there could be the critical mass of young professionals along that stretch of the road to sustain a few nice cafes, shops, and restaurants. But the flaw there is that the high street is so busy and not a very nice street that you can't really have a nice high street with shops along it.

The potential I think is on the West side of the station; the Olympic park. I can easily see that post-2012, there's going to be a huge geographic divide. People arriving at Stratford will "turn left" upon getting off their trains, and never pass through the old Stratford. So we'll have ghetto and depravation on one side of the tracks, and shiny new Westfield and parks and hotels and offices on the other side. Personally, I will wait for the apartments in the Olympic Village to go on sale, and get one of those.

I can see it being extremely attractive for both City professionals, Soho profesionals and Canary Wharf professionals - great transport links to all three areas, great shopping mall next door with lots of shops and restaurants and bars, and new apartments and new neighborhood. All only on the West Side of course.

[barbarossa]

The transport and the cheap availability of houses have always been big pluses

The new Westfield and the olympic spending are a plus too

But its going up from a very low base

If you don't mind the real risk of being mugged going home at night its probably okay

Also the legacy of a lot of olympic games has been mixed and it will definately result in a lot of ex-Olympic village flats going on the market in 2013-2014

There's no question that there's going to be oversupply of flats once the Olympic circus has packed up and gone, and it seems that quite a lot of them will have a ravishing view of the Westfield goods bay, too. However, in the long term I can see the established areas adjacent to what will be Queen Elizabeth park becoming very desirable. It's the Park that will make all the difference to the area. And within ten years Fish Island will be the new Shoreditch.

[Trampa501]

Does anyone here have an opinion on the Woodgrange park conservation area? Just had a quick recce last week, and it seems a pleasant enough zone, with tree lined avenues and many houses with front (as well as rear gardens). Prices seem quite good too. Is it the proximity to Forest Gate/Maryhill stations that depresses prices here?

[Smyth]

Old thread, but Stratford is another place where house prices have went really crazy over the last 6-12 months. What's strange is that this doesnt seem to correspond to any obvious gentrification; there are no signs of new bars/pubs/coffee shops geared towards young people, while these are even starting to emerge along at Forest Gate (which is an even worse area).

Also talking about Newham-wide statistics is slightly misleading - while Stratford is undeniably a dump, it is much less of a dump than the rest of Newham. Once you go south of Romford Road towards West/East Ham, Plaistow, etc, things get a lot worse (eg Green Street as someone mentioned above). At least Stratford still has a decent stock of Victorian housing, whereas the south part of Newham is just one council estate after another.

[Smyth]

Also if the guy who started this thread ended up buying one of those 3 bed new builds for < £300k, he'd have made a fortune. You wouldnt get much change from half a million these days:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43248049.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-41685616.html?premiumA=true

No idea why, since you could buy a whole house up in Leytonstone for that, in a much nicer area , and without whatever ridiculous service fee they are undoubtably charging

[MARTINX9]

Also if the guy who started this thread ended up buying one of those 3 bed new builds for < £300k, he'd have made a fortune. You wouldnt get much change from half a million these days:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43248049.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-41685616.html?premiumA=true

No idea why, since you could buy a whole house up in Leytonstone for that, in a much nicer area , and without whatever ridiculous service fee they are undoubtably charging

Yes - no idea why anyone would want to buy an overpriced flat in the Olympic park - there will be 11,000 new apartments there eventually lacking in character. It will be just one big estate.

And that is before you factor in all the events/concerts etc that will take place there almost every weekend in the summer - the noise will just be horrendous and you won't get any peace at all. And then you have all the footie fans to come when West Ham move there. Every flat should come with earplugs!

[barbarossa]

Yes - no idea why anyone would want to buy an overpriced flat in the Olympic park - there will be 11,000 new apartments there eventually lacking in character. It will be just one big estate.

And that is before you factor in all the events/concerts etc that will take place there almost every weekend in the summer - the noise will just be horrendous and you won't get any peace at all. And then you have all the footie fans to come when West Ham move there. Every flat should come with earplugs!

[barbarossa]

Oops. Phone posted before I was ready.

Despite myself I actually quite like the so-called 'East Village'. I can see it doing well in a few years. Now the park Is open it's an easy walk/cycle to the groovy fleshpots of Hackney Wick, Mare Street and Lauriston Road. I suspect the people who buy there will have mates in Hackney and the rapidly-gentrifying neighbours like Leyton and Forest Gate. But no, I don't see much in the way of gentrification in Stratford - although a 'hipster' cafe has opened opposite Maryland station.

[MARTINX9]

Oops. Phone posted before I was ready.

Despite myself I actually quite like the so-called 'East Village'. I can see it doing well in a few years. Now the park Is open it's an easy walk/cycle to the groovy fleshpots of Hackney Wick, Mare Street and Lauriston Road. I suspect the people who buy there will have mates in Hackney and the rapidly-gentrifying neighbours like Leyton and Forest Gate. But no, I don't see much in the way of gentrification in Stratford - although a 'hipster' cafe has opened opposite Maryland station.

Hipsters moving into Maryland - is the cafe a disused massage parlour?!

I am sure it will be a great place for young people - all those free events and festivals on your doorstep at weekends. And no doubt the flats will rise in value. But I cant say pretty bedsits in densely populated tower blocks in Stratford surrounded by a busy shopping centre and a busy park will necessarily be the sort of place you will find much peace and quiet.

But the hipsters will love it I am sure. After all £300k for a bedsit in a tower block in Stratford is surely nirvana to them!

[barbarossa]

I was surprised as anyone when that cafe opened in Maryland. It's called 'The Nook' and it's actually very nice. I think it's actually a disused estate agent!

I doubt the buyers care much for peace and quiet - they'll have that when they get their second property, which at this rate will mean a commute from Basildon or somewhere.

[Smyth]

I don't see Stratford/Maryland ever becoming a hipster area, Westfields is a horrible place and the whole area is far too commercial/busy and is unlikely to ever be able to support an 'arty' community.

If I had to pick a place in that area to gentrify then it would probably be Leyton (and its pretty much happening already); the demographic that you find on the high street area north of Leyton station is very different to the rest of the Leytonstone/Stratford area (i.e. young, white European students and some professionals), its closer to Hackney, and Antic have just opened a new pub there.

[barbarossa]

Leytonstone's gentrification is being led by young families priced out of Hackney and Stoke Newington.

There already is an arty community in the shadow of Westfield - Fish Island, between Bow and Hackney Wick. A lot of 'creatives' have moved into Forest Gate and South Leytonstone in the last year or so.

[Smyth]

I see zero evidence of that walking around South Leytonstone. The area is around 70-90% recent Eastern European immigrants, and assorted south Asians. In fairness. the Eastern Europeans are doing a lot to improve the area, and run most of the cafes/etc.