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Pay 50% more for a home near a Waitrose supermarket in London, research finds

New research suggests that buyers looking to be close to a Waitrose store should expect to pay 25% more than the average in their area.

Analysis from international real estate adviser, Savills, compares house prices in the postcode district where Waitrose stores have opened over the past five years to the average for the whole county and found that house prices are 25% more expensive.
 
London shows the biggest premium at 50%, followed by the North of England, where the premium stands at around a third. More rural regions, such as the South West and the East of England have a much smaller premium, due in part to higher average values overall.

In London, although Waitrose hotspots are linked to house prices that are 50% higher than the Greater London average, a closer look shows a more diverse picture. Three quarters of the capital’s Waitrose stores are located in postcode districts where house prices are significantly higher than the London average.
 
At the extreme, for a prime central London store location, house prices are more than three times, some 327%, above the London average. In the remaining London Waitrose locations there is no identifiable premium.

The firm says that in such cases it is likely that the store has a broad, transient client base, for example Westfield Shepherds Bush and Stratford, and house prices in the local area did not outperform.

The top 20 locations enjoying a Waitrose premium all have house prices at least 40% above their local county average. Nine out of the top 20 are in London, while the Cheshire wealth belt features in the list four times, with Altrincham ranked highest with a premium of 107%, suggesting house prices around double the county average.

‘Our analysis identifies a very clear house price premium in Waitrose store locations,’ said Sophie Chick, Savills research analyst.
 
‘It’s difficult to state with certainty that a Waitrose store opening will boost prices, but it is clear that buyers should expect to pay significantly more for their home if they wish to have a Waitrose store on their doorstep,’ she added.

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