How London has changed in three decades of Homes & Property
The average property cost £84,600, mortgages were £410 a month and no one bought in Hackney unless they could help it...
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they → change → it
Prudence Ivey looks back to 1996, when this section of the Standard was born
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section → look → Standard
Together we’ve navigated financial crashes, uncovered new neighbourhoods, ridden a buy-to-let boom, and flirted with shabby chic and mid-century modern.
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we → navigate → chic
London was anointed the coolest city in the world by Newsweek the same month H&P launched, a place “bubbling over with creativity and verve,” according to Stryker McGuire, then UK editor of the magazine.
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H&P → anoint → magazine
The capital’s clubbing, fashion, art, architecture and lifestyle reigned supreme, the Oxo Tower restaurant was the hottest table in town and the capital’s new luxury flats were attracting international money, then largely from Eastern Europe and Hong Kong on the eve of handover, according to Ed Lewis, director of super prime residential sales at Savills.
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flats → reign → Savills
But how much have London’s property and interiors scenes really changed since the first edition of Homes & Property was printed back in 1996?
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edition → change → 1996
Quite a lot it turns out.
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it → turn → ?
Back in 1996, London was leading the rest of the country out of a housing slump, with prices “catapulting back to their 1992 levels” according to an Evening Standard splash in July 1996.
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prices → lead → July
The average property in the capital cost £84,600, according to Savills, which puts today’s average at £554,400.
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which → cost → 554,400
That’s a more than 500 per cent increase.
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That → ’ → ?
Wages, meanwhile, have not kept pace.
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Wages → keep → pace
Figures from 1995 show the average London salary was £19,000, with people spending about 4.4 times their income to buy a home.
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people → show → home
Now the ratio is closer to 10.3 times as reported by Lloyds, with Londoners earning an average of £51,800.
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Londoners → report → 51,800
Indeed one colleague who bought at the time “because others in my office were and I thought I might as well” managed to secure a new mortgage product that offered a 95 per cent home loan with five per cent cash back to cover the cost of the deposit.
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that → buy → deposit
“I was looking at two-bedroom flats but then I thought I quite fancied a house so I moved to East Ham,” he says.
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he → look → Ham
It cost £95,000, about four times his salary at the time, he bought it solo, and within six years the price had gone up enough for him to re-mortgage to buy a second property that he then moved into.
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he → cost → that
Millennials and Gen Zers will read it and weep.
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Millennials → read → it
As Savills puts it, Britain experienced “an unprecedented period of price growth from the middle of the 1990s until the credit crunch of 2007, which fundamentally changed our relationship with housing”.
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which → put → housing
Mortgage rates were higher in 1996, with the Standard reporting that they had hit their lowest point in 25 years — 7.24 per cent with Bradford & Bingley.
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they → report → Bradford
But, after November’s interest rate rise and amid the rampant inflation caused by wars in Iran and Ukraine, it is plausible that rates (currently 5.55 per cent on average, according to Rightmove) could soon rise to meet them.
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rates → cause → them
The difference is that in 2026, the enormous house price inflation of the past three decades means those mortgage payments are significantly less affordable.
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payments → mean → decades
In 1996 the Standard reported that a mortgage of £60,000 cost about £410 a month, compared to £440 six months prior.
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mortgage → report → 440
Where to Live
Kate Moss had become a “Bush babe” Homes & Property said at the time, relocating to W12 in 1996 as her modelling career took off and she was dating Johnny Depp.
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she → live → Depp
She lived on Stanlake Villas, a quiet street of large Victorian houses.
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She → live → houses
Notting Hill was the real place to be in west London though, with everyone from Damon Albarn to Jeremy Paxman, Mariella Frostrup and Damien Hirst calling the area home.
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everyone → call → area
But it was in Islington that house prices were shooting up at a quite unbelievable pace.
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prices → shoot → pace
Figures from Halifax showed the average price in the borough went from £96,500 at the end of 1995 to £155,500 in July 1996.
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price → show → July
Creative consultant, Francesca, bought her first flat in Islington aged 25 for £47,000 with a £2,000 deposit she had saved herself living at home.
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she → buy → home
“My mum wouldn’t let me move out to rent so I had to buy a place.
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I → let → place
I was a freelancer earning about £100 a day here and there but the bank didn’t really understand so they gave me the mortgage.
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they → earn → mortgage
About a year and a half later I sold up, doubled my money and bought a two-bed in a different part of Islington for £110,000.”
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I → sell → 110,000
The then-Labour leader Tony Blair was one headline-grabbing Islington attraction.
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leader → grab → ?
The Blairs had bought their house on Richmond Crescent for £375,000 in 1993 and sold in 1997 for £615,000 when they moved into Downing Street following his landslide General Election win.
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they → buy → win
Jake Perkins, a director at Hotblack Desiato, who has worked in the area for more than 30 years, estimates it would fetch around £5 million today.
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it → work → million
Nowadays there are a lot more City workers, people who work for the big tech firms at King’s Cross, and people who might be moving from south-west London and want to live in east London but find it a bit far from their friends,” he says.
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he → be → friends
“In the 1990s it was literally Angel, Barnsbury and Canonbury where people would look,” he says.
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he → look → 1990s
“I remember as a young negotiator saying to people, ‘I’ve got this really lovely property just north of Highbury Fields’ and people would refuse to look in N5.
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people → remember → N5
Now that’s a really fashionable area.
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that → ’ → ?
Ah yes, Hackney, “where more shootings take place than anywhere else in Britain”, according to the Standard in 1996.
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shootings → take → 1996
The borough has been the major house price success story of the past three decades, with prices rising 738 per cent to £619,400.
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prices → rise → 619,400
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
