Train improvements drive up London house prices

Home prices are surging in London’s outer districts as improvements to rail networks and lower prices lure Londoners further out of the expensive city centre.

Home values in West Ealing, where the commute time to London-Liverpool Street will fall by half when a Crossrail train station opens in 2019, rose 29% in the year to February, according to an analysis of preliminary Land Registry data. That compares with a 12% rise for London as a whole.

“West Ealing was a no-brainer for us,” said Rosie Nesbitt, group director of sales and marketing at Fabrica, a London-based developer that is building 770 homes within a six-minute walk of the neighbourhood’s new Crossrail station.