|
MAY 14th 2006
By DUNCAN FARMER
While many people want to live in Walton-on-Thames because of its good schools and fast trains into Waterloo, few want to shop there. The town’s High Street has been described as dreary and uninspiring, at odds with the affluent Surrey commuter belt in which it lies.
Locals - who can pay more than £2.5 million for a home in Walton – would rather drive to Kingston and Richmond, where the chic boutiques are a far cry from the drab retailers that line their own streets. But all that is about to change as new blood is pumped into the centre of this riverside town. Within the next 18 months The Heart a £120 million, five- storey residential and retail complex by developer O&H Properties, will bring the 21st Century stores that residents so desperately crave.
So far, only Next has taken a shop in the vast complex, but Hobbs LK Bennett and Debenhams are rumoured to be moving in. The Heart will also have bars and cafes, including a branch of Carluccio’s.
Prices for apartments in the development start at £185,000 for one bedroom, rising to £255,000 for two. Penthouses are yet to be released but will be priced at about £600,000. An underground parking space will cost an extra £7,500.
While shoppers will be the main beneficiaries of the scheme, home-owners are also expected to profit. We expect house prices in the area to rise by six per cent, simply because of The Heart,” says Helen Webb, of estate agents Townends.
But while sales of the 279 new apartments are going well, the local property market is sluggish. “There are very few houses on the market at the moment and I think that,s because people are waithing to see what will happen when The Heart is finished,” says Webb.
Elmbridge Borough Council is also doing its bit and later this year it will open a new leisure centre. Families have been attracted to the town for decades, not only by its 29-minute train ride into Waterloo and 20-minute drive to Heathrow, but also by the quality of local schools. Walton lies within the catchments area of Weybridge Cleves School, which takes children from the ages of seven to 11.
The school has a breakfast club and after-school club – handy for parents who work in the City and want to pick up their children later. For older children, Rydens School has an enviable reputation with all its GCSE pupils gaining a pass at grade A to C.
The lack of good shops has held back house prices and in the private estates of Ashley Park and Burwood Park, buyers can pay anything from £1million to £3million for a property close to the town centre. In Stuart Avenue and Cottimore Crescent a three-bedroom semi is £280,000 and for first-time buyers there are flats for sale on Wimpey’s Waterside Park estate for about £145,000. Kings Road and Winchester Road are also popular with families and prices for a three-bedroom Victorian villa start at about £300,000.
Property investor and mother-of-three Penny Rainbow, who was born and bred in Walton but now lives in a 15th century tower in nearby Esher, is also convinced that The Heart will revive her home town that she is buying two apartments there. “It’s a ten year investment,” says Penny 44. “At the moment the town centre is a dump and looks horrible.
The heart will create a cosmopolitan feel and give the town a fresher image. I am paying £275,000 for each two-bedroom apartment and I don’t think the prices are far from wrong. Now I’m waiting for the penthouses to be released. I might buy one of those.”
|
