When a new shopping centre, major art gallery or new train station opens, estate agents chatter excitedly about how these new amenities will boost local property prices. In Wales and Scotland, expectations are mounting over how new sports facilities may add value to local homes.
In Aberdeenshire, northeast Scotland, Donald Trump received planning permission on September 1 to create two championship golf courses overlooking the sea. The Trump International Golf Links is scheduled for completion next spring.
Buying agency The County Homesearch Company expects the new golf courses to raise local property values because they will act as a magnet for golfers from around the world, some of whom will want to buy and rent homes nearby.
In Camarthenshire, west Wales, the Ffos Las Racecourse near Trimsaran opened late last month. As the first National Hunt course to be built in Britain for 80 years, this would attract new visitors to the area and boost the local economy, thereby driving up property prices, The County Homesearch Company forecast.
Property prices in Newham, east London, rose 5 per cent above the national average from 2005, when it was announced the 2012 Olympic Games would be held in the borough, to 2007, the height of the property market, said Carol Peett, director of The County Homesearch Company.
Sports facilities are not always good news for property prices, however. Many stadiums can depress values, research by estate agency Savills shows. Houses in streets surrounding Lords cricket ground in north London are worth 62 per cent less than houses further away in the same district.
The value of flats and houses close to Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea Football Club, are down by 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively because of the disruption caused by thousands of fans passing through the streets, according to Savills.
Only one of the four London soccer grounds surveyed by Savills had a positive impact on local property prices - Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in north London, which added a premium of 1 per cent.
The sports stadium that helps property prices most is the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, which adds a whopping 150 per cent premium to houses, according to Savills. Some residents let their houses to tennis players during the two-week tournament in June.
Lucian Cook, research director at Savills, said: "Only properties around Wimbledon show any substantial premium because disruption is confined to two weeks of the year when there may be the opportunity to let out larger properties for a tidy sum. Otherwise, on average, prices [close to a stadium] are 9 per cent to 12 per cent below those in the local area - although clearly there are exceptions. For example, a flat with a roof terrace and view over the Oval cricket ground can easily have a 10 per cent premium."
A big boost to property prices can be given by new and improved transport connections.
In London, estate agency Knight Frank said prices for newbuild homes around Kings Cross had doubled over the past five years because of expansion in the area's transport links and other facilities. Prices for new homes in the area had risen from £400 per sqft in 2005 to £800 now, Knight Frank revealed.
A new Eurostar terminus for trains running from London to Paris and Brussels was opened at the redeveloped St Pancras station, next to King's Cross station, in 2007. Trains from revamped Thameslink station nearby run to Gatwick and Luton airports.
Simon Barry, partner at Knight Frank, said these transport improvements were a catalyst for redevelopment of the area and the arrival of new employers and cultural attractions, all of which had lifted property values.
Developer Argent is redeveloping 28 hectares of surrounding redundant railway and industrial land into new shops, offices and 1,800 homes. The British Library and the Observer and Guardian newspapers have moved into the area.
"The main things which make a difference [to prices] are new transport links ... new amenities, such as the opening of a shopping centre like Westfield [in west London], and cultural attributes such as the Tate Modern on the South Bank," Barry said.
Howard Elston, director of estate agency Aylesford International, said close proximity to shops, bars and restaurants could make a property less saleable. "Many residents near the King's Road in Chelsea have easy access to its shops and facilities," he said. "But at night they have to put up with impossible parking as the area floods with people going out to dinner."
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
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