The housing market may be wobbly, but a great family home is as close to a copper-bottomed property asset as it is possible to find. Estate agents across the UK report that houses with gardens that are close to good schools are an easy sell compared to modest flats without outdoor space.
Buying a family home is a crucial property decision — it is the place where, potentially, you will live for decades and raise your children. If you are lucky it might also provide you with a pension pot once you are ready to downsize.
Which is why the family homes categories are so hotly contested in the annual Evening Standard New Homes Awards, which take place in September. In the meantime, buyers looking for that perfect family property should consider these five key factors when selecting their forever home.
The green premium
Buyers have long been willing to pay a premium to live close to good-quality open space, and since the Covid pandemic having plentiful green space on the doorstep has become an even bigger priority.
Sydenham, in south-east London, is an up-and-coming location with a London Overground station and a burgeoning high street. Its crowning glory is the 237-acre Beckenham Place Park, which is a real secret gem with its mix of woodland and grassland. It also has London’s first purpose-built swimming lake.
Croydon Road Recreation Ground adds tennis courts and a summer paddling pool to the mix, while the iconic Crystal Palace Park, with its dinosaur statues, sports centre and weekend food stalls, is close by.
Sydenham ticks many other family friendly boxes — most of its local schools have “good” Ofsted reports and there are sports clubs to join, as well as a leisure centre and an annual arts festival.
The rapidly improving Sydenham Road is seeing the arrival of stylish new independent cafes and restaurants as buyers move in from the more expensive south-west London.
At the new Sydenham Groves development (peabodynewhomes.co.uk) terraced-style properties are set in a cul-de-sac and there is a children’s play area a short walk away.
Prices start at £137,250 for a 30 per cent share of a two-bedroom apartment with a full market price of £457,500.
If you would prefer a house with a garden then another great and surprisingly leafy London option is Springfield Place in Tooting, with its smart two or three-bedroom mews houses.
The development is part of a major regeneration scheme, and by 2026 it will include hundreds of new homes, a 32-acre park, shops, cafes, an amphitheatre and a sensory garden. A primary school is also on the cards. Mews prices start at £798,000 (barratthomes.co.uk).
At your convenience
Unless you crave total isolation in your out-in-the-sticks smallholding, the chances are you will want a family home with plenty to do right on the doorstep. Walkability becomes even more important as children get older — they want their independence, and their parents don’t want to run a free 24/7 taxi service.
Broadstairs is one of Kent’s loveliest seaside towns, and homes at Lanthorne Place by Millwood Designer Homes are a 20-minute walk from its shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs.
For an outdoorsy family lifestyle there are beaches to explore (including Stone Bay beach, which is just five minutes down the road), cycle tracks and walking trails.
The cherry on the cake is the presence of eight schools rated “outstanding” by Ofsted within three miles.
Prices start at £395,000 for a three-bedroom house (millwooddesignerhomes.co.uk).
Room to move
When Helen and Maciek Krychowski were looking for a family home, what they really wanted was space and a headache-free life.
With an 18-month-old son, Aleks, and a pet dog, Gizmo, the couple, both 37, were feeling overcrowded in their three-bedroom Victorian house in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. And they were also sick of all the maintenance the period property required. “Things were always going wrong and our free time was spent fixing the house instead of spending quality time together as a family,” said Helen, a teacher.
She and Maciek, who is a banker, decided to upsize to a three-bedroom, £885,000 house at the Wilton Park development in Beaconsfield.
“Our son now has a bedroom at least twice the size as the one before,” said Helen.
“It’s great that the kitchen is so big that he can have a play area there and our lounge is no longer covered in Lego and toys — we have tidy areas just for grown-ups.”
Three-bedroom terraced houses at Wilton Park, which are set in parkland a stone’s throw from the town centre, are priced from £695,000 (bewley.co.uk).
Spaces designed for a growing family
A home’s layout needs to be flexible to accommodate the needs of a growing family. A place perfect for toddlers won’t work when you have teens (or boomerang twentysomethings) on your hands.
Called in to rethink an Edwardian house in Hornsey, north London, Paul Archer Design enlarged its galley kitchen with a glazed extension leading directly out to the garden, and removed ground-floor walls to create a flowing, open-plan space.
All families need plenty of storage, so the cellar was reimagined as a storage area, utility room and playroom (which could, in time, be converted into a cinema room when the children have outgrown their toys).
And, with the future in mind, the top floor has a study, sitting room, bedroom and bathroom. The idea is that this space can be used for guests, but in time the family’s children might one day use it as a private space within the house.
In Wimbledon, Holden Ford Architects were hired to remodel a spacious Edwardian house, Lake View, that was in need of some TLC.
They integrated a side annexe into the main five-bedroom house, replaced a series of dated extensions added by previous owners, and installed floor-to-ceiling glass to the rear of the house, helping to bring the outside in.
Wisely, the client realised that a fully open-plan design can be hard to live with, so the kitchen and dining room are separated by glass doors to give privacy when required. There is also a separate snug and two studies, while the loft level features a TV room with a dormer window and a terrace that offers spectacular views over Wimbledon.
Working from home made easy
Almost half of us still work from home some or all of the time, which means that having home office space is a real bonus.
A family home at Hayfield Rise in the village of West Lavington, Wiltshire, is perfect for those who want to marry busy family time with the nine to five.
There is an open-plan kitchen and a family room at the heart of the house, but there is also an office with extra sound insulation so that home workers can get some peace and quiet.
The carbon-neutral properties on Salisbury Plain are also equipped with solar panels and an air source heat pump in place of a conventional boiler, which will help to keep energy bills down.
Prices start at £720,000 (hayfieldhomes.co.uk/development/hayfield-rise).
