Trendy micro-breweries 'spark big leap in London house prices'

Beer boost: Trendy London beer makers are causing a boost to house prices

The opening of a Waitrose has long been seen as the most reliable sign that a neighbourhood is going up in the world — along with its house prices.

But now a new study suggests that the “Waitrose effect” has been replaced by the “craft beer boost” as an indicator of frothy local property values.

It has found that prices in 28 hipster-friendly areas of London where a boutique brewery has opened have shot up faster than the capital as a whole over the past five years.

Top of the list is Walthamstow E17, home to the Wild Card brewery in an old warehouse and the Left Bank Brewery at the Blackhorse Workshop, where average asking prices have surged 105 per cent to £478,636.

Second is Leyton E10, where Signature Brew and the East London Brewing Company are based. The average asking price of £456,046 is 94 per cent higher than five years ago, far ahead of the 64 per cent rise across London.

Rob Ellice, chief executive of online estate agency easyProperty, which carried out the analysis, said: “These ‘beer neighbourhoods’ are generally within zones 3 and 4, with a few on the outskirts of zone 2.

Beer brings cheer: master brewer Jaega Wise at Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow

The breweries are typically within light industrial areas or disused railway arches where land is relatively cheap, which means that it’s prime for gentrification.”

Mr Ellice said buyers are attracted to the neighbourhoods not just because of the affordable price tags but also because they offer the cachet of a bohemian, emerging community.

The study, published ahead of the start of Oktoberfest this weekend, suggests that breweries have now supplanted coffee shops as a reliable sign of postcode upward mobility.

Fifteen years ago the so-called Cappuccino Index was touted as the best indicator that a neighbourhood was on the up. But now that every high street in London has an array of coffee shops, the new alcoholic yardstick is set to supplant it, much to the delight of real ale enthusiasts.

Roger Protz, editor of the Campaign for Real Ale’s Good Beer Guide, said: “The research shows what CAMRA has long recognised, that beer brings people together and also creates a real sense of community and excitement in an area.

“The boom in small, independent and local breweries over recent years has brought a real sense of identity to the areas they locate in.

“Importantly, good breweries in an area also tend to bring with them good pubs and bars serving the beer, making it an even more vibrant and interesting place to live.”

London now has around 150 breweries with the six occupying the railway arches under the train line approaching London Bridge dubbed the Bermondsey Beer Mile.

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