MY PROPERTY MANAGER LONDON AREA GUIDE TO EARLS COURT

Earls Court is undergoing an exciting ￡8 billion project to regenerate the area with 8,000 new homes (1,500 of them affordable) with a new high street running through the centre.

Earls Court is at the centre of one of the biggest redevelopments in London. There was a time not so long ago when it was a neighbourhood of tatty bedsits and cheap hotels. It was more famous for its Art Deco exhibition centre directly opposite the Warwick Road entrance to Earl’s Court tube station than the quality of its housing stock. 

However, the bedsits and hotels have been largely swept away and replaced by spacious flats to rival those in nearby South Kensington.

The famous exhibition centre closed in December. It is to be replaced by an ￡8 billion scheme that will replace the two exhibition halls, the exhibition car park, a Transport for London repair depot and two council estates. The result will be the creation of a new neighbourhood stretching from Warwick Road in the east to North End Road.

Over the next 15 years, Capital & Counties Properties, is proposing to build 7,500 new homes, of which 1,500 will be affordable, with a new high street running through the centre.

Layouts are planned to work sympathetically with much of the traditional architecture of squares, and mansion blocks that make up large parts of the wider area of Earls Court. 

A new primary school will be built and ￡5-million worth of improvements will be made to West Brompton station, including lengthening the platforms.

The imposing Empress State Building will be vacated by the Metropolitan Police in 2019 and converted into an additional 500 homes. 

There will be a large sporting and leisure centre in the middle of the new estate. Prices start at ￡595,000 in the first phase, called Lillie Square, already being sold off-plan, with penthouses of ￡1.575 million.

Earls Court is three miles from central London with the busy Cromwell Road to the north; South Kensington and Chelsea to the west; Fulham to the south and West Kensington and Barons Court to the east. The almost equally busy Warwick Road runs through the area. 

It has garden squares and roads of red brick mansion flats and large four and five-storey terrace houses. There is also an enclave of smaller terrace houses in the area known as Kenway Village around Kenway Road to the east of Earls Court Road. There are also several mews tucked away.

Earls Court flats range from large 3,000sq ft mansion flats to studios selling for around ￡350,000, and price per square foot can vary from ￡850 a square foot for a basement flat in the less favoured roads west of Earls Court Road to as much as ￡2,400 a square foot for a first floor flat in Bramham Gardens.

Travel

Earl’s Court is on the District and Piccadilly lines. West Brompton is on the Wimbledon branch of the District Line; the Overground has trains to Clapham Junction and Stratford and there are trains to Watford and East Croydon. Earl’s Court is in Zone 1 and West Brompton is in Zone 2; an annual travelcard to or in Zone 1 is ￡1,256.

Renting

French families, in particular, like the area as it is cheaper than South Kensington, where their children are educated at the Lycée Fran?ais Charles de Gaulle. Jamie Zamal, the rental manager at Marsh & Parsons, says Earls Court is also popular with young sharers who expect to pay between ￡495 and ￡1,300 a week for a two-bedroom flat. Apartments in the prestigious Earls Court Square are available to rent from ￡1600 pcm

Postcode

SW5 is the Earls Court postcode. It covers most of the area, although south of Brompton Road falls within the SW10 West Brompton postcode. The development of the exhibition site falls into W14, the West Kensington postcode. 

Best roads

The garden squares to the east of Earls Court Road: Bramham Gardens, Barkston Gardens and Courtfield Gardens.

What’s new

Lillie Square on the former Earls Court car park on Seagrave Road is the first phase of the redevelopment of the exhibition site. Here, developer Capco is building 808 new flats of which 200 will be affordable. Designed by architects Paul Davies & Partners and with landscape design by Andy Sturgeon, there will be a new public square off Lillie Road and a new green corridor running along Counter’s Creek. First completions are next year and prices for the penthouses in phase one start at ￡1.575 million. 

The Landau is a development of 89 flats in Farm Lane; a joint venture from Mount Anvil and housing association Affinity Sutton; prices start at ￡915,000 for a one-bedroom flat and the development completes later this year. 

A site on the corner of Old Brompton Road and Warwick Road is being developed in a traditional style as a small Sainsbury’s supermarket and 11 flats.

The area attracts

Buyers are British, French, Italian, Middle Eastern and are also from the Gulf States. There are also investment buyers driven by the expectation that the huge Earls Court development will lead to strong capital growth.

Staying power

Families who decide they want a house move to Fulham and Brook Green. 

Council

Kensington & Chelsea (Conservative-controlled); Band D council tax: 2016: ￡1196.

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