Date Published 21 December 2015
When investing in a property two of the core considerations are usually capital growth and rental yield, but another crucial indicator, when deciding if a property represents value for money, is to calculate the price per square foot of a property. As a general rule price per square foot in Marylebone is between £1,300 and £2,000, where this top end of the spectrum is met and sometimes surpassed by the more prestigious Harley and Wimpole streets, near the medical district. Thus if a property's value circulates around Marylebone's average figures, then you can at least say that you are getting the market's value for the property; anything below these figures would indicate a very good deal and anything above would express less value for money.
During this week, we have been looking at 2 Marylebone streets in particular for a couple of prospective landlords. So with these fresh in my mind, we will compare them against each other to investigate what they are currently offering in terms of square feet and at what price! To start with, for the well-known Wimpole street, for a 1 bedroom flat the current average estimated price is £997,200. Then when combined with my average findings, regarding typical square feet for 1 bedroom properties, which we must say is based on a limited number of properties as the information available on this matter is sometimes restrictive and not always openly shared. However using my connections, we have found an average of approximately 736 sqft, which places one bedroom properties on Wimpole Street at an estimated £1,354.89 per sqft. To contrast this, we have applied the same calculation for 2 bedroom properties concerning the street in question, where the average asking price is approximately £1,686,421, matched with an average of 1259sqft; this totals 2 bedroom properties on Wimpole Street at £1,339.49 per sqft. As a result we see that for both 1 and 2 bedroom properties, Wimpole Street is operating within the £1,300 - £2,000 price per sqft guidelines that we mentioned earlier, which suggests a good value for money. If you want to be extremely picky then you could say that it is slightly more economical (even if it is minimal) to purchase a 2 bedroom property than a 1 bedroom on this particular street, as there is a difference of 1.14% per sqft.
To engage our findings into a wider spectrum, let us compare them with Crawford Street (W1H), the second of my two most enquired about streets this week. The current average asking price on Crawford Street (W1H) for a 2 bedroom flat is £1,081,086, which when compared to the average of 820.6 sqft that a 2 bedroom flat on the same street possesses, we can calculate that in overall this achieves a price of £1,317.43 per sqft. Then for 3 bedroom flats on Crawford Street, the current average price is £1,472,500 with an average of 1,247.6 sqft, which equates to £1,180.26 per sqft. Consequently regarding Crawford Street, we can gather that there is more value per sqft with 3 bedroom properties, rather than 2 bedroom properties by 5.54%.
However, if we follow this up and compare the value per sqft of 2 bedroom flats between Wimpole Street and Crawford Street, we gather that Crawford Street achieves a greater value of 1.66%. This is even higher when you contrast the price per sqft between a 3 bedroom property on Crawford Street, compared to a 1 bedroom property on Wimpole street; there is a much greater value of 13.77%! Thus, we can see that the value per sqft in Crawford Street is higher than in Wimpole Street and should attract the better investment. Although for those looking for opportunities in Wimpole Street, rest assured that the price per sqft performance does nevertheless operate within the typical Marylebone guidelines and would still be a great investment.
Got a query or need more information about the Marylebone property market? Don't forget we are more than willing to offer any assistance.
