Hot properties: who’s on the move in north London?

Derek Jacobi is selling up in NW3, there’s a Goldfinger gem in Primrose Hill and a rental opportunity at another Modernist icon, Highpoint.

Big buy

Regent’s Park Road, NW1, £1,499,000

Unless you’re prepared to bide your time and become a National Trust warden your chances of living in architect Ernst Goldfinger’s most famous north London project, his own house at 2 Willow Road, are slim to none. So this three-bedroom flat in a post-War project by the architect in Primrose Hill presents something of an opportunity.

 

Apartments in this small co-operatively run block are often sold via word of mouth from the other residents so the chance to grab one on the open market is not to be sniffed at. The flat itself offers a lesson in Modern simplicity with white walls, cork floors and the original mahogany fitted furniture.

 

 

 

The flats aren’t huge but there is a communal laundry, garden and private secure storage for each home in the basement. The common parts are classic Goldfinger with the exposed concrete and cantilevered staircase, while the building boasts a real, slightly rackety, very Primrose Hill history.

Aucoot, 020 7112 4907

First time buy

Primrose Gardens, NW3, £649,950

Yes it’s a little over the Help to Buy £600,000 threshold but that’s old news now since the government confirmed the mortgage guarantee part of the scheme was destined for the scrap heap. Realistically, this one-bedroom period conversion is not a first time buy for an average earner, even in the relatively high salaried borough of Camden, but it’s a fairly standard first time price in the high value surrounds of Belsize Park.

 

 

 

For just shy of £650k you get an ideal location, lovely garden views from your third-floor balcony and a flat that you don’t have to lift a finger on – how convenient to just move in and arrange your furniture, no wiring, plumbing or boiler nonsense to worry about.

Hadleigh Residential, 020 7722 9799

Fixer upper

Warrender Road, N19, £650,000

Fan of bright, floor-to-ceiling colours? Then step right forward, you have found your dream turn key apartment. For the rest of us, this split level two-bedroom flat in Tufnell Park is peppered with desirable period features from the attractive coving and stripped floorboards to the feature fireplace and bay window in the living room.

 

 

 

The maisonette also has a private share of the communal garden, which would benefit from some serious tlc – a dream project for a green-fingered buyer with aspirations for landscaping.

Benham & Reeves, 020 7284 0101

Rental

Highpoint, North Road, N6, £575 per week

Sometimes renting rather than buying can open up doors, which might otherwise be closed. You may not be able to afford to buy a Grade I-listed Modernist icon property, complete with tennis court and swimming pool, but for £2,492 pcm for this Highgate three-bed, chances are you could rent one.

 

 

 

Indeed, turn it into a shared flat for three (or even better if you can find some couples to split with) and you can live like the London Zoo penguins – legendary architect Lubetkin was behind both this building and the penguin enclosure – for a pretty reasonable sum. Highpoint is also super-convenient for Highgate village, so you’ll have cosy pubs galore on your doorstep.

Taylor Gibbs, 020 8341 0123

Word on the street

Theatrical legend Sir Derek Jacobi is upping sticks after 30 years in his house in Primrose Hill. The 77-year-old star of stage and screen (including current TV favourite Last Tango in Halifax, which offers a lighter counterpoint to his enormous portfolio of Shakespearian roles) has put his NW3 house on the market. The four-bedroom house where Sir Derek lives with his civil partner Richard Clifford, for sale for an undisclosed sum. But a Victorian detached grade II-listed property in desirable Primrose Hill is bound to fetch a pretty penny.