No stamp duty here: the London boroughs where first-time buyers can find starter homes for less than £300k

The average price of a starter home in almost one in three boroughs is now less than £300,000, meaning some first-time buyers are eligible for full stamp duty relief.
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Ruth Bloomfield28 September 2018

Young buyers on a budget will be heartened by news, released today, that means they will get more choice at prices to suit their pockets. It comes as London’s property market shows signs of slipping into the red.

Prices fell by 0.7 per cent in the year to July to an average £485,000, and heavy discounting is now rife across the market.

With prices on the wane across the capital, the average paid for a home in almost one in three boroughs is less than £300,000, according to exclusive research by Savills, making first-time buyers eligible for full stamp duty relief in these locations.

Savills analysed the average selling price of the cheapest 25 per cent of flats sold across the capital in the last year, to establish what a modest home would cost in each borough.

Starter homes for sale in London from £200k

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Bexley, in far-flung south-east London, emerged as the budget hotspot with an average price of £200,000.

The research indicates that buyers on low budgets are going to have to accept longer commutes to get on to the property ladder.

Like Bexley the other boroughs with average starter home prices of below £250,000 are all in the outer suburbs: Barking & Dagenham (£210,000), Havering (£215,000), Enfield (£232,600), Croydon (£235,000), Sutton (£242,000), and Redbridge (£249,999).

Buyers who want a more central home should head east to Waltham Forest, where an average starter property costs £290,000, or look south of the river towards Lewisham, where a first home costs an average £294,750.

At the other end of the scale, and not surprisingly, the most expensive place to buy a starter home is Kensington & Chelsea, at £705,000.

A first home in Westminster comes in at £620,000, while a rash of luxury flats in the City of London has pushed average prices up to £600,000, more expensive than living in Camden, Islington, or Hammersmith & Fulham.

The price of a starter home in every London borough

London borough Starter home price
Kensington and Chelsea £705,000
Westminster £620,000
City of London £600,000
Hammersmith and Fulham £510,000
Camden £505,000
Wandsworth £430,000
Islington £425,000
Hackney £391,750
Tower Hamlets £390,000
Southwark £382,000
Lambeth £378,000
Richmond upon Thames £370,000
Haringey £367,750
Barnet £320,000
Newham £320,000
Brent £311,000
Ealing £302,750
Greenwich £300,000
Kingston upon Thames £299,950
Merton £295,975
Lewisham £294,750
Harrow £290,000
Waltham Forest £290,000
Bromley £272,500
Hillingdon £270,000
Hounslow £256,500
Redbridge £249,999
Sutton £242,000
Croydon £235,000
Enfield £232,600
Havering £215,000
Barking and Dagenham £210,000
Bexley £200,000

Source: Savills using Land Registry

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