Property: Hot Spot: Brook Green, West London: An oasis where money grows

Brook Green experienced an evolutionary change last century with the drying up of the stream which provided it with half its name. As a new century approaches, another revolutionary development promises even profounder change. The epicentre of the radical rumblings lies just across the border with Shepherd's Bush.

Brook Green refers to a large area of W14 as well as to the long narrow peninsula extending eastward, and providing instant relief, from Shepherd's Bush Road. It falls within a distinct box formed by four major roads: Hammersmith Road, Shepherd's Bush Road, Shepherd's Bush Green, and Holland Road.

"Beyond us is Chiswick, which many buyers say is too far out," says Adam Hesse, local partner of Townends estate agents. "We are the last bastion of easy commutability."

Brook Green contains a mix of housing, covering apartment blocks and town houses, high-rise council estates and period cottages and houses. "Brook Green has many little villages," says Mr Hesse. "It continues to attract tenants and owner-occupiers who have been priced out of South Kensington and Notting Hill."

Prices may soar thanks to the White City scheme in the area running from Shepherd's Bush to the A40, alongside the Westway spur. The light industry, rail lines and depots will yield to a shopping centre, housing and leisure facilities, including a multi-screen cinema.

"I explore areas with special factors," says James Wilson, a Lane Fox director who sniffs out new investment opportunities, "and the White City development is a major infrastructural project that will impact on the entire area. If you buy in Brook Green today, you will see yields around 1 and 2 per cent higher than prime residential areas."

According to Mr Wilson, "Holland Park roundabout is a dividing line. West of it in Brook Green is miles cheaper than east, roughly from pounds 800 per square foot to pounds 200 or less. There will always be a vast discrepancy, but an infrastructural project like this will go a long way to redressing the balance. But do take a five-year view."

Mr Hesse offers a similar prognosis: "Brook Green is an oasis amid horrible roads, and Shepherd's Bush Green was never the jewel in the crown of anywhere, except Shepherd's Bush. But White City will brighten it up. The shady shops will move out, nice boutiques will move in. The contrast between the two greens will level out."

Brook Green may even receive cinematic fallout: "When Notting Hill becomes even more ludicrously expensive than it currently is, the film may encourage owners to try to sell at a silly price," Mr Hesse says. "If they get it, some may move here. When White City is finished, it will brighten up the entire Shepherd's Bush side of Brook Green."