Right guys and gals- a bit of information based on experience.
I lived in Stoke Newington (next door to Dalston) for 24 years. I could walk to Dalston Junction Station in ten minutes and know the area extremely well. I still have a few acquaintances there and visit from time to time.
Like many areas, particularly in North London, some parts of it have been “gentrified”. One part of it is called “De Beauvoir” (because De Beauvoir Road is the main thoroughfare. Sounds nice as well). It has a new railway connection to the City (though a railway to anywhere away from it is a positive asset). Three bedroomed terraced hovels with a back yard like the one I lived in now exchange hands for three quarters of a mill. However, whilst you may be able to take the rough out of Dalston you cannot entirely take Dalston out of the rough. It is what you might call a “cosmopolitan” area (i.e. it has people of many nationalities among its residents). It is “vibrant” (i.e. don’t walk around on your own after dark). It is “buzzing” (i.e. don’t expect to get too much sleep at the weekends). Ridley Road market resembles the old bazaar in Cairo (and smells about the same). However there’s nowt so queer as folk and people are paying ridiculous sums to live in what are essentially inner city dumps.
I know where this particular development is (one of my friends lives in nearby Forest Road and is doing all he can to get out). It is not at the better end of Dalston (if indeed there is such an end). It’s quite true that Westfield at Stratford is only twelve minutes away (though quite how that’s a selling point is a little hard to fathom). If the estate agents are portraying the area as predominantly white middle class they are being disingenuous with the truth. You may find a house in a nice road not too far away (and expect to pay an extra £100k to £200k for the privilege). But much of it is as I described above – a noisy, dirty, smelly melting pot where I would not pay three quarters of a pound to live, let alone a million. Still, if they can shift enough of their new “units” to gullible foreigners then good luck to them. Their advert, though, is utterly misleading but I can understand why they do not portray Dalston as it really is. It’s like many areas of London – nice in small patches but the patches are very small and you have to pass through some less salubrious areas to conduct your business.