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Knight Dragon has abandoned plans for a 500,000 sq ft film studio at Greenwich Peninsula, following the news that approval has been granted for another major film studio in Dagenham East. The developer will instead devote the space to more housing space; the number of homes has been increased from 15,730 to 17,487, with the amount of affordable housing increasing from 3,930 units, or 25% of the total housing, to 4,884, or 30%. Knight Dragon said the increase in housing provision was in line with the draft London Plan’s revised requirements for the area. Greenwich Bourough Council is expected to make a decision on the revised masterplan early next year.
Property Week (20/09/2019)
House price growth in the UK is at its slowest since 2012 at 0.7%, with London affecting the overall picture with a 1.4% drop over the past year alone. However CBRE’s new Borough by Borough report shows four of its top five locations for house-price growth in the capital in the past five years were in east London: Barking & Dagenham (51%), Newham (49%), Waltham Forest (44%), Bexley, in southeast London (42%), Redbridge (41%) and Havering (40%). CBRE attributed the boost to post-Olympic regeneration, the redevelopment of industrial sites, emerging tech hubs and young professionals looking for greater affordability.
The Sunday Times (22/09/2019)
The Mayor of London is on track to fall short of his 2019-20 new housing target. Sadiq Khan promised to build between 17,000 and 23,000 new affordable houses in 2019-20, a minimum of 4,250 per quarter. But fresh statistics from the Greater London Authority (GLA) budget monitoring committee showed City Hall started builds for just 2,672 affordable homes in the first quarter. And only 37,187 houses - less than a third of the overall target - have been started as of the beginning of the second quarter.
City AM (23/09/2019)
Despite continuing Brexit uncertainty, a total of 85,931 mortgages were approved by the main high street banks in August and mortgage approvals for home purchases were 3.2% higher than in 2018, according to data from UK Finance. Remortgage approvals were 0.1% higher and approvals for other secured borrowing were 0.4% lower than August last year. Mike Scott, chief property analyst at Yopa, comments: “This suggests that housing market activity has now completely recovered from the slowdown around the first Brexit deadline in March. A new slowdown may soon begin, as the October deadline draws closer and the political uncertainty seems no closer to resolution, but it is likely that the market will again recover quickly once the short-term outlook is clearer.”
City AM (25/09/2019)
Property transactions in August increased from the previous month while falling slightly year-on-year, according to new data from HMRC . There were 99,890 residential deals in the month, down 0.9% on last year but up 15.8% on July 2019.
City AM (24/09/2019)
House prices in East London have risen 37% over the past five years, driven by the numerous developments in and around the Docklands area, outperforming the rest of the capital. Of the 541 tall buildings in the pipeline for London, according to New London Architecture, the bulk are in Tower Hamlets and Greenwich, while part of the Royal Docks is being turned into the Asian Business Port, which will generate 30,000 jobs and add £6bn to the UK economy. New developments include Telford Homes’ New Garden Quarter in Stratford, a collection of upside-down duplexes with bedrooms on the ground floor and large living areas upstairs. Three-bedroom homes there start from £725,000. Elsewhere, a studio flat at EcoWorld’s Aberfeldy Village in Poplar, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows, a 24-hour concierge, and a gym, can be had from £330,000, rising to £530,000 for a two-bedroom property. Further out, at Upton Gardens, Barratt’s conversion of West Ham’s Boleyn Ground into 842 new homes, offers one-bedroom homes from £359,000.
Evening Standard (18/09/2019)