Our sales & lettings offices

About Battersea

Buying a house or flat in Battersea

Douglas & Gordon’s UK Battersea office is in the heart of what’s known as ‘Nappy Valley’. These two words neatly sum up the area’s demographic profile of more children under the age of four than any other place in Western Europe – one reason why the road is populated with upmarket toy shops, cafés catering for children and all manner of children’s clothing and furniture retailers, including a children’s hairdresser. Even D&G’s Northcote Road office is child-friendly: while their parents talk to a negotiator, children can sit at a purpose-built Lego table with mini chairs making Lego houses that can then be displayed on special stands in the window! Excellent local schools simply add to this child-friendly feeling.

Sales director George Franks says, “Our core market is terraced Victorian family houses for young professionals who want to live Between the Commons [Clapham and Wandsworth]. They want to buy a house close to the commons, local amenities and schools.” The streets running off Northcote Road offer good-sized family accommodation, although most of them have small gardens. This doesn’t deter buyers, however, who use the commons for picnics, dog-walking and Saturday morning football. “People will compromise on the garden for a good house,” George explains.

Northcote Road, with its lively bars and restaurants, shops and street market is also an attraction for single people and couples, who buy one of Battersea’s many conversion flats – the office also covers the streets between Lavender Hill and Clapham Common Northside. Indeed, the area undergoes a transformation after dark, with young professionals spilling out of its many bars on to the pavements and not a child in sight!

Right across London, property is currently in short supply, but George says that this is the norm for his patch. “Regardless of the market it always feels as if property in Battersea is in short supply, mainly because there are only so many houses available between the commons at any one time – and those that are for sale tend to be snapped up very quickly, especially in our most prestigious roads near to Wandsworth Common.”

Buying a house or flat in Battersea has also become more expensive as accommodation prices have soared by 30% during 2006 and 2007, “due to lack of supply and City bonuses”. Currently you can buy a one-bedroom flat in Battersea for £300,000, while the largest house for sale in the most sought-after streets would fetch £3 million. The average is somewhere around £1.3 million.

Many residents say that the area has a tranquil feel, with leafy streets and the common, which is a huge community asset for sport, walking dogs and cycling. Wandsworth’s low council tax, the relatively low levels of crime and the fact that the country’s busiest railway station – Clapham Junction – is on the doorstep, all add to the desirability of living in this area. George describes Battersea as “very established – a residential enclave which is still as popular as ever.”

Property to let in Battersea

Like the sales team, Annabel Hay, lettings manager of Douglas & Gordon’s UK Battersea office, says that Battersea is such a desirable area to live in that she has no trouble persuading people to rent a house of flat there; instead, the challenge is finding enough houses and flats to market, as demand far outstrips supply.

“We have a good mix of clients, from young professionals to families. Although families want houses between the commons and in the Abbeville Road area so that they’re in the catchment area for the good schools, young single people and couples also appreciate the vibrant bars and restaurants along Northcote Road.”

Most of the flats to rent in Battersea are conversions, from £275 per week for a one-bedroom flat. Family houses, especially in the most prestigious roads between the commons, command rents of £1300 per week, but these do not come on to the rental market very often, unless a family is relocating.

Annabel hasn’t noticed a particular trend in landlords selling their properties rather than renting them – a pattern that has affected the rental market in some areas of London. “Round here, there are lots of long-term landlords who won’t sell simply because prices have gone up. Some of the short-term investor landlords are selling, but many of our rentals are for families who have relocated for a year or two. They won’t sell as it would mean having to get back on to the property ladder when they come back.”

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