Place your bets: the hottest London areas to buy property this year

Affordable neighbourhoods to invest in are rare in the capital — but these places should buck the trend. By Ruth Bloomfield

- Ruth Bloomfield

After decades of gentrification, identifying London's next big thing has become a needle in a haystack exercise. Making matters more complicated, today's buyers cannot expect to rely on the sort of exponential house price growth that propelled previous generations up the property ladder - according to estate agent Savills’ latest forecasts, London house prices will flatline in 2026 and increase by a modest 13.6 per cent by 2030.

Happily, there are exceptions to every rule — and these are the investment hotspots and under-the-radar, good-value neighbourhoods best placed to outperform in 2026 and beyond.

WOOLWICH

Once London's military heartland, the regeneration of Woolwich has been firmly focused on its riverside — until recently.

But, finally, signs of investment are creeping inland, beyond the smart apartments of Woolwich Arsenal.

In December developer Re:shape was granted planning permission for almost 1,500 new homes at Electric Works, on the former site of Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys on Macbean Street, which moved to Thamesmead in 1999. The site has been largely empty and derelict ever since. Not only will this £425m development of student rooms and co-living homes plus apartments (some 40 per cent of which will be affordable) bring an injection of younger people to the area, but it will provide a useful link between the shiny newness of the Arsenal and slightly tatty “old” Woolwich. Work is due to start in 2027 and complete in 2029.

Meanwhile, the old Woolwich Leisure Centre has been replaced by Woolwich Waves, a state of the art facility with a series of pools featuring flumes and slides, gyms and sports courts, which opened this week. The old sports centre will be knocked down and used for housing.