A typical residential property in the capital’s Barnet area was priced at £531,053 between 2017 and 2018, according to the government’s Land Registry statistics. The report, published in October 2018, showed the that the average home in the upmarket London location was twice the nation average of £247,914.
At the time of the last census, the population in Barnet numbered387,800 (comprising around 5000 more females than males). Barnet is in fact London’s second largest borough. Meanwhile, the average(mean) age of residents back in 2011 was 36.8 years old. Of all residents aged 16 and over (280,302), a total of 148,379 residents lived as a couple, while 131,923 lived on their own. The majority of people(79,079) owned their home-either outright or with a mortgage, while34,906 were private rentals.
General property market in Barnet
In January 2019, there were 718 properties for sale in Barnet according to the website home.co.uk with the average home sitting on the market for around 212 days. Of the total number of properties to buy in Barnet, the majority were flats(266) and priced at an average of £520,119. Next highest category was detached homes (203 properties) and with an average asking price of more than £1 million.
Semi-detached homes was the next highest category (152 properties) with just 54 terraced homes on the market. When it came to room size, two-bedroom properties were the most popular, with 181 advertised for sale. There were 157 three-bedroom properties, 142 with four bedrooms and 90 properties boasting five bedrooms or more. Only 77 properties had one bedroom.
Private rental market in Barnet
In January 2019, tenants could choose from 330 properties for private rental in Barnet. The average rental price was £2,489 pcm. In contrast to the ‘for sale’ market, the majority of properties to rent (184) were flats,128 properties were houses and there were just 14 rooms to rent.
Recent investment in Barnet
Property and regeneration are major buzzwords in Barnet, where the majority of investment is being privately funded (rather than socially via the local authority or housing associations).
A massive 27,000 new homes are to be built by 2025. These will fit into the private, affordable and social housing categories. It includes 10,000 homes in Colindale, 7,500 at Brent Cross (along with redevelopment of the shopping centre there) and 2000 in Mill Hill.
A further 1500 new homes are to be built at Brookfield Riverside and Garden Village near Broxbourne. The ambitious development–which will be boosted with the introduction of Crossrail 2 resulting in easier commuting times-will include a new retail centre and primary school.
Best areas for specific property strategies
Barnet is popular amongst HMO and buy to let landlords–to the extent there are more in the location than in any other area of the capital (788Barnet landlords in January 2018). In fact, according to one buy to let specialist company, Barnet was the top location in 2016 for buy to let landlords looking to invest.
