An Angel on the edge of the City

Islington has come a long way from the 1960s borough made famous by such playwrights as Joe Orton and his partner Kenneth Halliwell. Then, the grungy, austere flat in Noel Road, which Orton called home, was as infamous among their friends as Orton’s comedies were with the general public.

More than 40 years later, such Islington properties have become sought-after apartments, starting at around £300,000, while four-storey Georgian homes are snapped up for £1.5m, and the postcode N1 has become a golden one.

According to recent research from Savills on prime central London, the number of transactions in the borough is 88 per cent of the pre-credit crunch peak in 2007 and prices are 1.1 per cent higher compared with the same period.

“Islington is the best performing market in London in terms of transaction levels,” says Lucian Cook, director of research at Savills. “It has come up the ranking over the last 10 years, and rivals prime south-west London (Fulham, Wandsworth, Clapham and Putney).

Islington’s success story is due in part to its proximity to the City. It takes just 20 minutes to walk down St John’s Avenue to Smithfields, and Bank, St Paul’s and the West End are less than a 30-minute bus ride away.

The borough also has two Underground stations: the Angel, and Highbury and Islington. The revamped overground train station at Highbury opened in February with faster connections. Canary Wharf can now be reached in 15 minutes. “It’s made Highbury and Islington a crucial transport hub. It’s as important as the Angel,” says Paul Williams of Savills’ Islington Branch.

It is this convenience that attracts City workers and, although there is a sprinkling of media types, most buyers are well-heeled financiers, lawyers and accountants. “They are almost exclusively English,” says Williams. “There is no foreign money. [Islington] doesn’t do it for them. It is a very indigenous area,” he adds.

Demand is greatest for late Georgian or early Victorian homes overlooking the 30 acres of Highbury Fields, Islington’s largest green space, which includes tennis courts, a swimming pool and a playground. The elegant streets in the neighbouring conservation areas of Canonbury and Barnsbury (where Tony and Cherie Blair used to live) are equally sought after, with average prices of £800 per square foot and sometimes £1000 per sq ft, according to Garrington property search consultants. Spacious family villas frequently fetch more than £2m, often considerably more.

“Property in the £800,000 to £1.5m price range is a severely competitive bracket,” says Robie Rinder, 33, a local barrister. Rinder and his partner, also a barrister, recently bid, amid considerable competition, for a newly built Georgian style three-bedroom home on the edge of Barnsbury. The house, which overlooks a small churchyard, is four minutes walk from Highbury and Islington tube, and it is only a 10-minute cycle ride to his chambers at the Temple.

“The asking price was £930,000 and four other people bid for it,” says Rinder. “We had to provide a letter detailing our financial position, and ended up paying £5,000 more, £935,000 – which is cheap for the area.”

Rinder typifies the upper financial end of Islington’s broadly youthful population. Almost half of the inhabitants in the borough (46 per cent) are under 40, according to a 2010 census. Consequently, every possible type of rebuild or conversion, whether from petrol station or office block, has been squeezed out and transformed into homes – mainly flats, to cater for this demographic.

There are “swathes of social housing and new-build developments that have emerged on brown-field sites in recent years,” says Nicholas Ayre, director of UK buying agent Home Fusion. Peripheral areas, such as New North Road, or homes on busy roads, are more affordable at, on average £675 per square foot.

“It means that there is something for everyone, whether that’s a £275,000 ex-local authority flat for a first-time buyer or a £4m six-bedroom town house for a family,” adds Ayre.

Savills are selling the first phase of 31 one-to-three bedroom apartments in a gated development in Highbury Gardens off plan. On the site of a former black-cab showroom, the apartments are priced from £349,000 to £640,000. Eventually there will be 119 apartments grouped around a courtyard. The development is minutes from Highbury and Islington station, Highbury Fields and bustling Upper Street, the area’s main high street.

Packed with trendy restaurants and shops that sell everything from frocks to frappés, Upper Street draws a young crowd. Over the years, convenience stores, supermarkets and chic boutiques that appeal to the young professional tenant have moved in alongside and at times supplanted the antique stalls and bric-a-brac shops.

In the past 18 months, rents have risen significantly – by 15 to 20 per cent for high-end corporate flats – and a reasonable one-bed flat now starts from £440 per week, while a two-bed is roughly £550 per week. “It’s a nice mix of people – we get a lot of young people and media types popping in, because we are so close to the Almeida Theatre,” says Heidi Knusden, who lives locally with her young family and runs the Ottolenghi Salad Bar and restaurant in Upper Street.

However, Islington is not all rocket salads and prosecco. For all its elegant squares and period gems, this part of London is the 14th most deprived borough in England and parts of it feel like it.

“It’s cutting edge. There is a high proportion of social housing and you don’t come to Islington for the green,” says Williams.

Many families leave for leafier boroughs as they find Islington too dense, with so-so schools – though this is slowly changing. William Tyndale and Hanover are two well-regarded local primaries whose results are healthily above the national average, and the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language College is an improving state secondary school for girls, and the fee-paying selective City of London School on the River Thames by Blackfriars is a popular alternative. “There’s quality housing and you can walk to work. Islington is now premier league with prices to match,” says Williams.

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Buying guide

Pros

● Great transport links, and you can walk to the City.

● Good housing stock, from Georgian Villas to Victorian town houses.

● A thriving community high street with restaurants, cinemas and theatres.

Cons

● Area is dense with narrow roads and little green space.

● Property prices are high.

● The diversity of people able to buy in the area is narrowing.

What can be bought for ...

£1m: three-bedroom, three-storey Victorian town house overlooking Islington Green but with no garden.

£100,000: two garages in central Islington.

Contacts

Savills: www.savills.com

Garrington: www.garrington.co.uk