Barnet, in North London, lays claim to two of the country’s most expensive roads to own a home.
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Winnington Road, lined in red-brick mansions, some set behind tall hedges and many with gated entries, spans a leafy stretch of the North London borough of Barnet.
It’s also the most expensive street in Great Britain, according to a report Monday from Rightmove.
A home on the well-to-do street, which is close to Highgate Golf Club and Hampstead Heath, has an average asking price of £12.5 million (US$17.7 million), the online property portal said.
The most expensive home for sale on the street is a 10-bedroom house asking £17.95 million.
London lays claim to many of the most expensive streets in the U.K.
Chester Square in London’s Westminster ranked as the second-priciest street, with an average asking price of £11.5 million. The Bishops Avenue, also in Barnet, rounded out the top three, with an average price tag of £8.9 million.
“This year’s top 20 [most expensive] is taken up almost entirely by London addresses, showing the city still reigns supreme when it comes to ultra-prime property,” Colleen Babcock, Rightmove’s property expert, said in the report.
“For buyers looking for prestigious roads outside of the hustle and bustle of London, Elmbridge in Surrey is flying the flag for the rest of the country as the only area outside the capital to make the top 20 list,” Babcock said.
Homes on East Road in Elmbridge—about 20 miles southwest of central London—have an average asking price of £8.8 million.
Outside of England, Drumsheugh Gardens in Edinburgh is the most expensive street in Scotland with an average asking price of £560,000. Hollybush Road in Cardiff, where homes ask an average of £1.2 million, is the most expensive in Wales.
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The US housing market remains under pressure as high mortgage rates continue to weigh on affordability and demand. Industry leaders say 2026 has been one of the toughest years for home sales, with slower price growth, weaker mortgage activity, and fewer buyers entering the market. However, experts say reduced competition and more price cuts could create opportunities for well-prepared buyers.
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The typically busy spring season for the housing market was a dud, and the summer isn’t looking much brighter.
Housing services companies like Zillow Group and Rocket RKT +3.78% were loud and clear last week on earnings calls: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna called the quarter through June “one of the toughest spring housing markets in years.”
Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call that the company predicted earlier this year that the market for mortgages would be flat. “We actually now think it’s going to be down low-to-mid-single digits,” he said.
The rest of 2026 will remain challenging for mortgage origination volume, says KBW analyst Bose George. The question now is what happens in 2027. “If mortgage rates remain [around] 6.75%, I think that’s going to be challenging even for next year,” he says.
But what’s bad news for mortgage companies could be a positive for bargain hunters. Buyers can expect prices to grow more slowly—or mildly decline—with less competition as long as mortgage rates remain unpredictable.
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the year were solidly below year-ago levels, notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. But they surpassed last year’s levels recently, she adds, referencing Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Last week’s reading, at 6.69%, was higher than year-ago levels for the first time in 2026.
“From the affordability point of view, it’s going to get more challenging in the second half of the year,” she says. “And when affordability gets more challenging, that impacts sales and home price appreciation.”
Mortgage application data tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association has cooled since the beginning of the year. The trade group expects that the number of mortgage originations in the remaining two quarters will lag behind last year’s levels, after exceeding 2025 levels in the first half.
Rocket’s early-stage data—which the company told Barron’s it derives from its brokerage Redfin, demand for its mortgage products, and signs in its servicing portfolio that a homeowner is preparing to refinance or move—“leads us to expect the third quarter mortgage market to be smaller than the second,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Brown, said on the company’s call. He added that such an occurrence is “something the industry has not seen since 2022.”
Prices will be about flat nationally, Ng says. Zillow’s most recent forecast, which shows how values are expected to change in the year ending June 2027, show them dropping in roughly half of the 100 largest U.S. metros for which data is available.
Buyers aren’t rushing in at a time when mortgage costs are rising and unpredictable. But those with the right combination of patience and cash could stand to benefit. “If you are financially qualified to buy a starter home, you are facing less competition and you’re more likely to get a price cut,” Ng says.
