London buyers are still willing to pay a hefty premium for proximity to public transport, with properties located 500 metres from a station selling for an average of £42,700 more than those 1,500 metres away, according to new research by Nationwide.
The findings highlight the enduring value of good transport links, despite the pandemic reshaping housing preferences and fuelling a temporary shift towards suburban and rural living. Nationwide’s analysis, which examined property values in London, Manchester and Glasgow, suggests that the premium associated with being near a station has largely returned to pre-Covid levels.
In London, the premium amounts to about 8% of average house prices, while in Manchester and Glasgow the uplift stands at £10,900 (4.9%) and £8,800 (4.6%) respectively. Nationwide noted that more than 80% of Londoners regard proximity to a station as either “fairly important” or “very important” when choosing a home, compared with about 60% of residents in Manchester and Glasgow.
The higher premium in London reflects more frequent usage: nearly 60% of Londoners use local trains or the Underground more than once a week, compared with 37% in Glasgow and 35% in Manchester. Nationwide said its findings cover properties close to Tube, Docklands Light Railway, London Overground, Elizabeth line and National Rail stations.
Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former chair of residential at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said the results showed that while the pandemic accelerated shifts in demand, the importance of transport access remains strong. “The increase in working from home certainly made a difference to where people chose to buy and rent for quite a long time,” he said. “However, that trend is slowly starting to reverse as people return to work – not quite to the levels before Covid but certainly approaching them.”
Nationwide’s latest data puts the average UK house price at £271,000 and the typical cost of a London property at £532,500.
