House prices hit the Jubilee line jackpot

Property prices on the "Jubilee line corridor" of north-west London have recovered faster since the crash than in any other part of the capital, according to new research.

St John's Wood NW8 - home to Lord's cricket ground, Abbey Road studios and Sir Paul McCartney - tops the list of postcodes where prices have now passed their 2007 peaks.

Although the second and third placed areas in the property "resilience" league table are in central London the next nine are all NW postcodes.

Experts said the large number of family homes in these areas combined with good access to the West End, the City and Docklands on the Jubilee line have helped prices recover quickly.

Of the top 12 postcodes, five are on the Jubilee line - St John's Wood; NW2 (served by Dollis Hill and Neasden stations), NW3 (Swiss Cottage), NW6 (Kilburn and West Hampstead), and NW10 (Willesden Green).

The average St John's Wood home is valued at £888,840, almost seven per cent above the level of September 2007, according to the survey.

Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of property website Zoopla, which carried out the research, said: "This reminds us that there are prosperous areas of London outside Kensington and Chelsea, which traditionally have the highest absolute prices."

Richard Woolf, director of the St John's Wood branch of agents Winkworth, said: "The Jubilee line is an important factor because it goes straight through to the City and Docklands so that increases demand from tenants, purchasers and buy-to-let investors."

At the other end of the scale Thamesmead SE28 has the furthest to go to recover lost ground with average prices more than nine per cent below the peak at £195,811. London property prices fell 20 per cent or more in the wake of the banking crisis. Prices are now above their peaks of September 2007 in 22 of the capital's 154 postcodes.