“The market has been phenomenally good ever since the end of the first lockdown in May 2020,” said Vivienne Harris, founder and managing director of Heathgate estate agents, based in Hampstead.

Full article (https://www.wsj.com/articles/deep-pocketed-buyers-flock-to-londons-hampstead-where-harry-styles-and-benedict-cumberbatch-own-homes-11652889614)

High demand coupled with limited supply means competition for the best homes, said Ms. Harris. She recently sold an unmodernised house on a popular street for $8.23 million or around $3,685 per square foot. Pre-pandemic, similar homes were trading at around $2,948 per square foot, she said. 

Across Hampstead, Ms. Harris estimated sale prices for properties with outside space have increased 20% to 25% since March 2020. That means a typical four-bedroom house in Hampstead would now cost between around $3.07 million and $3.5 million, while a two-bedroom, first-floor apartment with a backyard would cost around $1.04 million.

The premium prices that homes around the heath command means the demographic of Hampstead and its surrounds has changed hugely since Ms. Harris began selling homes there in the 1970s. “They are bankers, people who work in IT, and app designers,” she said. “And there are lots of celebrities, of course; film stars, models, comedians.” 

Current neighbours with household names include the pop star Harry Styles, 28, who owns three houses on the same street. He bought the first when he was just 18 and had recently found international fame with One Direction. Since 2019, he acquired two more Hampstead properties, spending a total of around $18.4 million.

“When I first started working here there were more authors, poets, artists, musicians,” said Ms. Harris. “It used to be more bohemian. You don’t have the intellectual people that you used to, because you have to have a lot of money to live in Hampstead.