London’s property buyers are prepared to pay an average of £42,000 extra to secure a home within a five-minute walk of an Underground or railway station, a new survey claims, and as reported in the London Evening Standard on Tuesday.

The “station premium” has widened drastically from £27,000 in the past two years, as improvements to the Tube and Overground networks have made access to public transport even more valuable for home- owners.

The survey, by the Nationwide building society, looked at prices at various distances from stations, ranging from 500 metres — equivalent to a brisk five-minute stroll — and 1,500 metres, which is almost a mile and takes around 15 minutes to walk.

The best-connected borough, Camden, where 85% of homes are within 500 metres of a station, also has some of the highest prices.

Among the outer London boroughs Brent has the best links with 50% of addresses in the 500 metre premium zone.

The “most expensive” Underground line is the Circle, where the average price of properties which are near stations is £802,601.

The cheapest is the Metropolitan line, much of which stretches through the less pricey outer suburbs, with an average of £369,417.