Vertus has unveiled the first of three apartment buildings being developed by the build-to-rent operator for Canary Wharf Group. The apartments will be available to rent early next year, and will start from £1,950 per month. Alastair Mullens, head of Vertus, comments: “As a new residential landlord for Canary Wharf, Vertus will provide a fantastic experience for those who rent with Vertus, with varied facilities, an exciting events programme and 24/7 concierge, all this without the commitment of buying.”
Property Wire (12/11/2019)
Galliard Homes is set to develop a £140m luxury residential and retail development above Tottenham Court Road’s Crossrail station. Tottenham Court Road West (TCRW) will include 92 flats – with prices for a studio apartment starting at £899,000 – and 9,939 sq ft of ground-floor retail space. The scheme is expected to take 30 months to build and to open in summer 2022. Galliard Homes chief executive Don O’Sullivan said: “TCRW will provide world-class apartments in an unrivalled location off Oxford Street in the heart of London’s West End. Galliard’s new apartment buildings are integrated with the Crossrail interchange offering residents easy access to London Heathrow, Canary Wharf and locations such as Bond Street and Liverpool Street.”
Evening Standard (12/11/2019) City AM (12/11/2019
UK house prices will go up by an average of £35,000 in the next five years, according to Savills. However, data from the estate agent suggested there will be large fluctuations across the country. The average value of a home in Britain is expected to rise 15.3%, but in some areas the increase will be as high as 24%, which is the case for the North West whilst in other parts of the country, such as in Greater London, they will rise by just 4%. The rises are forecast as concerns over the current political and economic uncertainty begin to subside. Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, commented: “We anticipate a continuation of trends seen historically, where London and the South East underperform markets in the Midlands and North. This appears to have begun in 2016, coinciding with the referendum, when London hit up against the limits of affordability.”
The Daily Telegraph (14/11/2019) The Times (14/11/2019)
Mortgage rates have hit record lows as the prospect of a Bank of England rate cut reared its head this week. With the election and Brexit uncertainty giving buyers cold feet, banks have entered into a “cut-throat” price war to lure customers. Three lenders – Halifax, Santander and Virgin Money – are offering five-year fixed mortgage rates at below 1.5%, according to Moneyfacts. However, Rachel Springall, a finance expert at Moneyfacts, warned: “The lowest rate mortgage may not always offer the best overall value though because it will depend on how much someone is looking to borrow.”
The Mail on Sunday (10/11/2019)
First-time buyers in London are taking more than ten years to save for a deposit – whereas buyers in Blackpool need less than three. A recent report from Post Office Money has revealed how long buyers have to wait to get on the property ladder in certain areas. In London, first-timers save for just over a decade to get a standard deposit of £170,003 on the average home costing £538,132. This assumes a household income of £79,834 a year, according to the survey. In Blackpool, saving a typical £21,696 deposit to buy an average £110,000 home takes two years, nine months - assuming household income of £40,053. Other towns where first-timers save the longest include Guildford and Woking in Surrey, as well as Cambridge and Oxford. The UK average was three years, six months.
Daily Mail (12/11/2019)
Blackfriars Road in Southwark, south London, has emerged as the new millionaires’ row, recording more sales of homes at over £5m than any other address in the country. Analysis by law firm Boodle Hatfield shows that in the past year there have been 16 sales above that figure on the street, also known as the A201. All were apartments in One Blackfriars, an asymmetrical glass tower nicknamed “the Vase”, which sits by Blackfriars Bridge, across the road from the railway terminus. Meanwhile, sales of properties at £5m or more in the traditional hotspots of Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea were down by 23% over the past year, but were up by 19% elsewhere in London. In the past year 416 sales of properties for £5m or more were recorded by the Land Registry, of which 262 were in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, 107 elsewhere in London and 47 outside London.
The Times (11/11/2019)