SOME people are armchair sports fans. Some shell out on a season ticket or a private box. But what about buying a home on the doorstep? Whether you’re a football fanatic who wants a flat overlooking your team’s home ground, a grand prix nut who’d love a home next to Silverstone, or a racing obsessive who dreams of a house near Newmarket, increasingly, it seems, there’s a development for you. But is it only die-hard fans who should consider buying, or do you have a sporting chance of making a profit?

Many Arsenal fans jumped at the chance to buy a home at the old Highbury stadium development. A two-bedroom flat on Hamilton Park, Highbury, within a couple of minutes’ walk of the old stadium, was valued at £430,000 a few weeks ago, up nearly £230,000 from just five years ago.

A few miles to the east, at Leyton Orient, the Quadrant development, top right, by Bellway Essex at the Brisbane Road ground, is the first in the UK to include a substantial number of new homes as an integral part of a working stadium – 144 apartments in elevated blocks on each of its four corners.

The scheme has revived the club’s financial fortunes and boosted regeneration of the surrounding area, with prices of existing properties rising by at least 20 per cent. Howard Wiseman, left, a property consultant, could safely be described as a fan – he holds three season tickets and is a sponsor of the club programme – but his decision to buy two of the flats was very much a business one. “The Olympic activity is on the doorstep and the Channel Tunnel link is right at hand, so from an investment point of view it couldn’t be better,” he says.

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Not everyone is convinced. “We handled a couple of the properties when they came back on the market, and they proved to be quite a difficult sell,” says Matt Steggles, of Douglas Allen estate agents. “We tried our hardest not just to market them to men, but they did turn out to be the only ones interested in the end. Single women didn’t want to know.”

But if burger vans and beer-fuelled chants don’t appeal, then surely proximity to the sport of kings would be a more attractive proposition? The new King’s Meadow development by David Wilson Homes is about a mile and a half from the two racecourses at Newmarket, Suffolk, where an estimated one in four jobs is in some way connected to the sport. Toby Greenhow, of Savills in Newmarket, says: “It’s very much a town of two halves. Traditionally you’ve had the terraced houses rented to the stable boys at one end, and the huge palatial spreads of the owners outside the town at the other, where you’d probably be shot if you got anywhere near. Houses in this development start at over £510,995, so it’s still towards that upper end, but there hasn’t been nearly enough good-quality housing in between the two extremes.” The new development unusually has just 41 private houses in 27 acres of land, though there are about 12 affordable mews units on the site.

A development also likely to please racing fans is Noverton View in Prestbury by George Wimpey Homes, three miles from Cheltenham racecourse, where four and five-bedroom semis and detached homes range from £325,000 to £550,000. George Wimpey has also launched the 3D development of one or two-bedroom flats and penthouses, ranging from £147,995 to £189,995, within walking distance of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

A ten-year plan to develop Silverstone has been announced by its owners, the British Racing Drivers’ Club, and residential development is included, subject to planning permission. The A43 will separate the circuit from the housing, so there will not be a decent view from the balcony, but the housing will be within Silverstone village.

There can be certain drawbacks, however. “Anyone thinking of buying a development close to a major sporting site needs to take into account things such as the noise, litter, drunken behaviour and fans travelling to and from the site, which can last half the day,” says Andrew Warner, of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

“Make sure you know what you’re getting into,” says Matt Steggles. “A crucial thing is to find out whether the ground is only used for sporting events. Some have nightclubs attached or are being used as concert venues. That might sound great, but not if you’ve got to get up for work in the morning.”

FIXTURELIST

The average property price in Suffolk is £167,097, with prices rising 9.2 per cent annually. Detached houses in the King’s Meadow development at Newmarket begin at £510,995 for four bedrooms or £579,995 for five bedrooms.

Average price of a flat in Waltham Forest, home of Leyton Orient, is £194,419. One-bedroom flats in the Quadrant range from £175,000 to £210,000; two-bedroom apartments from £220,000 to £260,000.

The average property price in Highbury, Islington, home of Arsenal’s stadiums, has risen since 2002 from £251,114 to £382,020. Source: Land Registry.

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