9 of the most north London property sales of 2015

From a back garden costing more than £1million to film locations and prime ministers’ homes, here are the property sales that summed up the very special world of north London property last year

Daphne du Maurier’s childhood home

One of Hampstead’s most famous and distinctive houses, Cannon Hall, sold for £28million in June 2015 in a once-in-a-generation exchange. The detached house, which was built in 1730, was the childhood home of Daphne Du Maurier and speculation was rife over who would be the next resident. Hampstead’s heritage guardians can relax as the buyers are local stalwarts so mega-basement plans should be unlikely in the near future.

This bit of garden

A small back garden in Primrose Hill sold for £1.26million at auction in July. The plot had a guide price of £150,000 but a bidding war meant that the 20 m sq plot, which is surrounded by houses and does not have planning permission to build, was sold by one property developer to another for nearly 10 times that.

Harry Potter house

Leafy Heathgate was used as the location of Hermione Granger’s family home in the 2010 film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The real life muggle family who lived in this Hampstead Garden Suburb house put it on the market and the property sold for £3,615,000.

A £15.2million Hampstead house

Despite dark mutterings of total stagnation at the upper levels of the market, some pretty swishy properties were still snapped up, including this detached home on Greenaway Gardens. For just over £2.5million per bedroom, the buyer got a designer landscaped garden, a gym, a wine cellar, a staff suite and an orangery.

Student halls to luxury flats

Furnival House in Cholmeley Park, Highgate, a former University of Westminster halls of residence described in one TripAdvisor review as the “most terrible student accommodation in the UK and beyond” sold for £24.5million. The 1916 building, originally built as accommodation for female workers at Prudential Assurance, is currently being developed into One Highgate, 15 luxury flats priced between £1,600,000 and £6,250,000.

Prime ministerial residences

The Hampstead Garden Suburb home of 1960s Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson came on the market in May, just in time for the general election, which was being particularly hotly contested in Finchley and Golders Green. While the seat may not have swung in favour of Wilson’s politics, the house sold within a couple of months for only £11,000 below the asking price. The Hampstead home of first ever Labour PM Ramsay Macdonald also came on the market last October.

A flat with access to more swimming pools than bedrooms

A one-bedroom flat in St John’s Wood sold in the summer for £830,000. The buyers may have been tempted during the warmer weather as the apartment boasts access to not one, but two swimming pools. Sure, the two pools aren’t for the sole use of the 678sq ft flat but access is only shared with six other properties.

£100,000/month rentals

Wealthy but tax-shy tenants became a bit of a theme of 2015, with the threat of mansion tax at the start of the year and hefty Stamp Duty rises on pricier properties putting some people off buying. These super rich could-be buyers turned to renting instead, forking out astronomical sums each month and huge deposits to live in some of London’s most lavishly appointed homes.

The house from Spaced

Also in lettings, a flat in the Tufnell Park house featured in cult millennial sitcom Spaced was rented to two young professionals. Rumour has it the pair were fans of the show, but they say that’s not why they went for the property in the first place. The two-bedroom apartment on Carleton Road, known as 23 Meteor Street on the show, was let for £460 per week, more than five times the rent paid in the show.