Moving with pedal power

Caroline McGhie explains how the boom in cycling is affecting housing – and why buyers are looking for the wheel deal

Mind the bike. The cycling revolution isn’t just changing the streets. It is changing the property market. Leading agent Knight Frank in its Global Cities Index 2015 has credited the cycling phenomenon with opening up areas of London such as Hackney and Shoreditch. Smaller agents around the capital say that cycling is transforming urban backwaters into rental hot spots. The rising price of a Tube ticket, combined with traffic hell and an increased appetite for fitness, can make the two-wheeled commute look irresistible. The Olympics and Tour de France turned it into more of a love thing. “Tenants used to want a concierge or underground parking but now they want a bike store,” says Marc von Grundherr of Benham & Reeves. Mayor of London Boris Johnson added a swashbuckling element. Barclays Cycle Hire, quickly dubbed “Boris Bikes”, was launched and the initial network of 5,000 bikes at 315 docking stations has billowed to the extent that last year 10million hires were reported. The blue bike livery is about to turn red in April as Santander takes over sponsorship. Von Grundherr adds: “Where there are Boris Bikes there are rental increases. It has opened up new areas of London.” Pockets in the south of Chelsea and north Kensington, traditionally considered a bit too far from the Tube, have suddenly become popular. “And as we know, rental hot spots then become popular with investors and buyers.” Now Boris has endorsed a 15-mile Crossrail for bikes, from Ruislip in west London to Barking in the east, as part of a £913million investment in cycling. He hopes it will open in 2016 and use Dutch-style segregated track along awkward places such as Victoria Embankment and the Westway flyover. Developers, pressured by local authorities, are effectively creating a new cycle-conscious property market. A scheme at 250 City Road, designed by Foster & Partners, will have 930 apartments with only 200 parking spaces but 1,486 bike spaces and a bike lift descending to a dedicated cycle maintenance workshop. Prices start at £845,000 for one bedroom (020 3040 6250; 250cityroad.co.uk). “We have to provide almost one cycle space per bedroom now as more and more people cycle,” says