Focus On… Wimbledon: A game of two halves

AS THE Championships drew to a close last week, it wasn’t just Novak Djokovic who was counting his prize money. Savvier residents in the leafy, south west London suburb who rented their property out for the fortnight also  earned themselves a tidy profit, according to estate agents Hamptons International. 

“Many home owners choose to let their property out during The Championships and would expect to get at least three times the rental value of a normal long let – this is even more than the value of a holiday let,” says lettings manager Alison Perdue. “These home owners will often put their personal belongings into storage and jet away on a luxury holiday for the fortnight, all paid for by the price of letting out their home.”

For the remaining residents, house prices have increased by 15 per cent over the last 12 months, say Hamptons, making the average property worth around £630,000. But Wimbledon is a game of two halves: Wimbledon town and Wimbledon village. The village is a quintessential middle-class hotspot, with the greenery of the Common offset by boutique shops and eateries, but you’ll pay around 25 per cent more to live there. 

The town has all the facilities of a typical London suburb and great transport links via the District Line and Thameslink. While both areas are popular with families for their high-achieving schools, Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward suggests a four bedroom period home around the Common starts from £2m, while family houses go for around £500,000 to £700,000 around South Wimbledon and Colliers Wood. This area is only set to get more attractive, due to the amount of development around Wimbledon Chase including a new NHS hospital.

“Yet for the rest of the year,” says Clive Moon from Savills’ Wimbledon office,“it is the peacefulness of its surroundings that is the chief attraction: Putney Heath, Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park cut an almost continuous swathe of open countryside right through the area.”