Thanks to explosive house price growth, those who bought these homes decades ago in this once down-at-heel part of the capital are now sitting on wealth<\/a> that dwarfs what they initially paid.<\/p>\n One house on Elfindale Road, bought for \u00a3176,000 in the mid-1990s, earned its former owners \u00a3595,000 when it was sold in 2006, according to the Land Registry. By 2020 the same five-bedroom house went for over \u00a31.6m, a more than 800pc increase in a quarter of a century.<\/p>\n This suburban postcode, SE24, includes dozens of addresses where property prices have soared by hundreds of thousands of pounds during the same period.<\/p>\n One house on Elfindale Road, bought for \u00a3176,000 in the mid-1990s, sold for more than \u00a31.6m in 2020 – Julian Simmonds for The Telegraph<\/p>\n Conventional wisdom has long held that the value of bricks and mortar in London is almost certain to rise exponentially. For years, families in the capital relied on it to climb the property ladder and get ahead.<\/p>\n This is now a distant memory. Last year the capital registered zero increase overall in house prices, which have been sliding for the past three years.<\/p>\n House prices were \u00a3686,039 on average last year across the capital, 5pc lower than in 2022. In some pockets of the city prices are falling dramatically<\/a>.<\/p>\n In SE24, where prices rose 196pc between 2009 and 2024 \u2013 among the highest of any postcode area in London \u2013 prices crumbled 8pc on average last year, according to analysis by property website Rightmove.<\/p>\n The prices of terraced houses in particular have taken a big hit. In 2022 they were selling for just over \u00a31.2m, but last year values were 16pc lower, at \u00a31.066m on average.<\/p>\n The heyday of house price growth in London has come to an end, thanks to soaring interest rates, a growing tax burden, and because property has simply become unaffordable<\/a>. Buyers in the capital can now no longer assume their home is a golden ticket \u2013 and will sell for vastly more than they paid.<\/p>\n \u2018Houses would sell themselves\u2019<\/p>\n When the global financial crisis struck in 2008, house prices in major cities like London tumbled. By 2009 they had crashed approximately 20pc, as buyer confidence evaporated. Many homeowners were plunged into negative equity, meaning their properties were worth less than they borrowed.<\/p>\n But then prices recovered much faster than the rest of the country off the back of the city\u2019s burgeoning economy. Almost a third of new jobs created in the UK in the decade after 2009 were in London, according to research published last year by the University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n The growth in prices was fuelled by the Bank of England cutting interest rates to rock-bottom levels, while foreign buyers were enticed to London by a weak pound.<\/p>\n Between 2009 and 2014 the city entered a period of unbridled growth when house prices went up by almost 8pc on average every year. \u201cHouses would sell without them even being seen,\u201d recalls Simon Gammon, of Knight Frank Finance. Buyer confidence came rushing back. \u201cHouse prices were rising so quickly, people were confident they were going to go up, and mortgages were so affordable… People were stretching themselves to take advantage of those huge gains.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were several decades where it was a divine right that you would see 5pc to 10pc capital growth every year on your home,\u201d says Mark Pollack, who has led London-based estate agency Aston Chase for 40 years.<\/p>\n Transaction costs were low and people traded up and up. For many families moving up the property ladder during this time, a return on their investment was all but guaranteed. \u201cYou could almost sit in [a house] and it would earn more than you could,\u201d adds Gammon. Between 2009 and 2010 alone, properties in London rose in value by 12pc, equal to an average increase of \u00a344,684 \u2013 more than the median salary in the city at the time of \u00a329,260 a year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).<\/p>\n \u2018Like buying gold\u2019<\/p>\n Today the picture could not be more different. The market is so sluggish that if you buy a house now there is little guarantee it will sell for much more in the next few years.<\/p>\n![\"Elfindale](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5dabc7e1fc1a37de6af9d057a4a31a05.jpeg\"\/)
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