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Croydon tops London's wealthiest borough league for property

The London Borough of Croydon has fended off competition from some of its glitzier peers to be dubbed London’s wealthiest borough when it comes to property.

According to new figures analysed by online estate agent eMoov, although the likes of Kensington and Chelsea commonly take the crown for highest house prices and the most expensive areas in London, but a new metric taking into account the entire surface area of a borough taken up by domestic property and gardens has revealed a far more surprising result.

The average house price in Kensington and Chelsea stands at over £1.4m, the highest in London, and the second highest cost per square metre at £9,110.

However, using eMoov’s methodology, which took data from the London Datastore to glean the total square meter total of space utilised for residential developments in each borough and then cross-referenced this with the cost of each price per square meter from London.Gov, the capital’s upmarket postcodes did not fare so well.

With the average per square meter of land in London standing at £2,401 multiplying this by the total land used for residential purposes in Kensington and Chelsea results in total property wealth of over £41.3bn.

While substantially higher than the average of around £28.3bn, the famously expensive borough only comes out sixth in the list of wealthiest London neighbourhoods for property.

Utilising this innovative metric for property wealth actually sees Croydon come out on top, with its total of £77.2bn a full £20bn more than its nearest rival Richmond upon Thames (£58.7bn+).

Founder and Chief Executive Officer at eMoov, Russell Quirk, described the figures as an ‘alternative’ way to look at property wealth, and said the surprising totals highlight the quantity of assets currently available in Croydon.

He commented: “Kensington and Chelsea certainly rules the roost where the premium price tag and cost to individual home buyers are concerned, but as this research shows, it isn’t the wealthiest in terms of the sheer quantity of the property assets located across the borough.

“When taking into account the size of each borough’s property portfolio it provides an alternative look at which parts of London are home to the greatest accumulation of property wealth.

“Of course, the outer boroughs of London dominate as these are the locations that allow a larger ground area to be allotted to a residential purpose, but it is the recent trend of homeowners forsaking the inner city and looking to these more affordable outer boroughs that have seen prices increase there, and in turn, push them up these rankings.”

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