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Construction of the 67-storey Spire London, set to be the tallest residential skyscraper in western Europe, has been halted. It was expected to be completed by 2020. Now, however, the £800m scheme is at a standstill and prospective buyers are being told that sales had been temporarily halted because the design was under review. The economics of the project, by the Chinese developer Greenland Group, were also understood to be under scrutiny due to the fall in London property prices.
The Sunday Times (27/05/2018)
An Indian conglomerate claims its regeneration plans in east London have been dismissed by the Greater London Authority and existing owners the Silvertown Partnership. Essel Group said it had been in advanced talks to buy a 62-acre site at Silvertown, which would have housed a huge cultural centre and thousands of homes. Insiders said the partnership was now in exclusive talks with Lendlease and Starwood Capital to buy the site. “This approach suggests the interests of the developers are being put ahead of what is best for London,” said Essel chairman Subhash Chandra.
The Times (29/05/2018) City AM (29/05/2018)
London’s house prices have seen the slowest growth out of all major UK cities except Cambridge over the last year, according to property market analytics firm Hometrack. House prices in the capital increased by just 0.8% in the last year, while Cambridge saw house prices increase by just 0.1%. The data also showed the impact of larger discounts from asking prices. In England, discounts on asking prices were largest in London, Oxford and Cambridge, of up to 4.7% on average.
The Times (29/05/2018)
Gross mortgage lending in the UK in April reached £20.4bn, 13.3% higher than a year earlier. The number of total mortgage approvals also increased 11%, driven primarily by remortgage approvals which were almost 30% higher than a year earlier and 11% up on the previous month, according to figures from UK Finance. However the data confirmed home buying was down 9.4% on the previous year, representing the fifth lowest level in three years.
City AM (25/05/2018)
The Royal Albert Wharf housing development in Beckton has been named London’s best residential project at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ 2018 awards ceremony. The development, on a site formerly occupied by a pharmaceuticals warehouse, will have three blocks containing 350 homes, 40% of which will be affordable, under affordable rent and shared ownership schemes. The wharf is being constructed by the Stratford-based unit of Galliford Try Partnerships.
Newham Recorder (18/05/2018)
Research from Lloyds Bank shows that first-time buyers in London pay double the UK average to get on the housing ladder, with the average buyer in the capital paying £420,132 for their first home, while the average first-time buyer across the country pays £210,515. The average deposit paid by a first-time buyer in London is £92,833, more than 60% higher than in 2013. Five years ago 17% of all first-time buyers in the UK were in London, while the proportion has now dipped to 12%. Meanwhile, London house prices fell 0.7% in March according to the Office for National Statistics, with average property costing £472,000, compared to the English average of £241,000.
Daily Mirror (22/05/2018) Evening Standard (22/05/2018) Financial Times (23/05/2018)