Peckham, Woolwich and Southwark: This is the fried chicken guide to London’s best property deals
What does fried chicken have to do with property prices?
Everything – at least if these maps are to be believed. Mapping the number of chicken shops against the number of fancy coffee places has revealed the pockets of London which are “up and coming”.
This unusual guide for property investors hoping to find the next big thing suggests Peckham in south-east London may be your best bet.
Sam Floy, the guide’s 24-year-old creator, came up with the idea when flat-hunting, as his estate agent described an area as up-and-coming, which he felt needed greater assessment.
Rather than believe the phrase was merely plucked out of the air, I struck upon a theory that future house prices could be explained by looking at the relative number of coffee shops and fried chicken shops in the area.
The assumption that the ratio of coffee to chicken could be a reliable indication of future prosperity seems to have legs. The idea is that a higher density of posh artisanal coffee-sellers suggests a neighbourhood will likely command higher prices to come.
From left: Coffee shop density, chicken shop density, and house prices
If it all sounds like a bit of a joke, you’re not far off.
Floy told City A.M. the idea started out as a gag about London estate agents he told when trying out stand up comedy. He soon realised it might actually make a useful guide for house-buyers, so began working with data scientists from ASI to create the heat maps:
Getting a sense who how local amenities interact with house prices in an area is a nice, quick way to evaluate where to look.
Plotting the coffee-to-chicken ratio against the areas of London that still have average house prices below £500,000 gives what promises to be a visual guide to the capital’s future hottest neighbourhoods – and the best deals for house-buyers.
The darker the purple, the better the deal.
The final map: London's most up and coming areas?
Peckham comes out top, but Southwark, Woolwich and Isle of Dogs are also all good spots for bargain-hunters on the lookout for the best deal.
"As far as I'm aware, the Coffee: Fried Chicken Index isn't a filter on Zoopla yet, but it may not be beyond the realms of possibility in the near future," Floy said to City A.M..
He’s now planning similar maps studying the ratio of pound shops to bicycle repair shops and the density of shops selling quinoa.