Hi and congratulations on your new job and house! I've lived in Hackney for five years now, not far from where you are looking, and I've always found it a great place to be. Like you, i work in the City and it's an absolute breeze to get to work. From the area you're looking at (which sounds like de Beauvoir Town), you'll be reliant on the buses but there are loads going down Kingsland Road into the City from there - it would also be easy to cycle in and even walking in to the City isn't beyond the realms of possibility! I'm not sure when the tube is scheduled to open so don't rely on that being there any time soon. They've been talking about opening it for years, easily as long as I've lived there and from speaking to my neighbours, even as long as they've lived there (20 years plus). The most common deadline I hear for it is 2009 but I've also heard 2014. I guess it would make sense to have it finished by 2012 for the Olympics but who knows?
De Beauvoir Town is a really nice area, although it's very residential and there aren't really the services around there in terms of shops, bars, restaurants etc that you get further up Kingsland Road in Dalston or further down in Hoxton. I think that Kingsland Road marks the border between Islington and Hackney and I suspect that this is reflected in the house prices round there. So if you bought in the development you are thinking of, you could (just about) claim you live in Islington!
Your 325k should get you something good in the area, although prices have shot up in the last couple of years, especially since they announced the Olympics. It's a real sellers market in the area at the moment and I'm not sure that there are too many bargains to be had, so new build might be the way to go. Generally, two bed flats are going for about 300k it seems, although these are in period conversions and so pretty spacious, which is something you might not get in a new build.
A lot has changed in the area in the last five years, although there's still a long way to go. However, there are a lot of developments going on at the moment and I think that Dalston in particular has got a real chance of becoming a half decent area - it's very scruffy at the moment but has so much potential, which will surely be realised when the tube opens. So if you are looking at staying in the area for a reasonably long time (five years or more) I'd say it would be a good area to buy.
I've posted some more of my thoughts on Hackney somewhere else on a post on AIL - hopefully it might be of some use if you can find it!
Good luck,
Dave.
Posted: 2006-08-21 14:52:28
