Docklands News

Banks are limiting how much buyers can borrow when they take out a mortgage because of rate rises and the increasing cost of living. Barclays and TSB have revised their affordability calculators, which help to work out what borrowers can afford to pay in mortgage costs each month, and Santander will follow suit this week. "We can expect more lenders to take living costs into consideration, especially when the energy price cap is removed in April", said Chris Sykes from the mortgage broker Private Finance. "This means we can expect tighter affordability for some and lower loan amounts." 

The Sunday Times (27/02/2022)  

Ljubomir Jankovic, professor of advanced building design at the University of Hertfordshire, discusses how a study by his team shows that a radical overhaul of the construction industry is needed to reach net zero goals. The research found that due to embodied carbon emissions only building all new housing using naturally grown materials with negative embodied carbon will allow the UK housing industry to be net zero by 2050. In addition to drastically ramping up the energy efficiency requirements for new builds, we should also urgently develop regulations for retrofitting existing houses, he argues. Better education of architects, engineers and construction managers is required, and detailed modelling of buildings will be required, too. 

The Independent (25/02/2022)  

British Land has revealed plans for the construction of two more towers at Canada Water. Covering a total of 53 acres, the Canada Water Regeneration scheme is one of the largest mixed-use regeneration projects in London, featuring up to 3,000 new homes, 2m sq ft of workspace, and 1m sq ft of retail, leisure, entertainment and community space including proposed health and social infrastructure, and educational uses for all ages. The two new towers will stand 34 and 37 storeys high with the shorter tower linked to a nine-storey podium of offices.  

Construction Review Online (22/02/2022)  

Maccreanor Lavington has been given permission for a 56-storey skyscraper at Canary Wharf. The £250m, 500-apartment block is being developed by Far East Consortium (FEC); the project will see Ensign House, a 1980s office building at South Quay, demolished and replaced by a 230m-tall bronze-coloured tower. The building, close to FEC's first project in Canary Wharf, the 65-storey Consort Place mixed-use development, will feature a thin spire on its top, which will be lit up at night to "celebrate the siting of the building". The scheme's ground floor will be given over to commercial use. Planners at Tower Hamlets Council said the loss of office floorspace on the site would conflict with its local plan but was "considered to be justified and outweighed by the existing low occupancy levels of the office building [and] the underutilised nature of the site as a whole". A construction start date has not been set and a contractor is yet to be appointed.

Architects' Journal (21/02/2022)   Construction News (18/02/2022)  

Telford Homes has acquired a site near Stratford International to build two residential tower blocks from LCR, the Department for Transport and HS1. Telford already has planning for the 380 homes development. The two-tower scheme will also have flexible retail and office space across the ground, first and second floors. “Having developed more than 1,750 homes in the area over the past 12 years, securing the opportunity to deliver more homes for the neighbourhood means we’re able to further contribute to making Stratford a world-leading destination, as well as improving housing supply", said Jerome Geoghegan, land and planning director at Telford Homes. “This site is a great example of our aim to build sustainable communities and create rewarding opportunities for our partners, residents and the communities in which we build".

Construction Enquirer (22/02/2022)   Property Week (22/02/2022)  

Residential property transactions fell by a fifth in January compared with the previous month amid shortages in homes for sale. More than 85,000 properties changed hands last month, the latest figures from the Treasury show. There were 22% fewer transactions than in December and 13% fewer than in January 2021. However, the figures for the start of the year were 7% higher than the January average for the three years before the pandemic. The supply of homes for sale is thought to be about 10% below the average across 2017 to 2019.

The Times (23/02/2022)