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16th December 2016
Housebuilder Bellway has reported that reservations were up 7% for the 18 weeks since the beginning of August, compared to the same period last year, and added that it expected to build 5% more homes in the financial year that ends next July. Bellway, which builds homes largely in east London and on the outskirts, also said it had restarted its land acquisition due to "the positive autumn trading performance", after pausing following the EU referendum. Site visitor numbers and hits to the group's website were both ahead of last year, while cancellation rate stood at 11%, edging up on the 10% seen a year earlier.
The Daily Telegraph (14/12/2016) Financial Times (14/12/2016) The Times (14/12/2016) Evening Standard (13/12/2016) Independent I (14/12/2016)
16th December 2016
According to a report by JLL there is strong demand in the Canary Wharf residential market with the majority of sales being for owner occupiers. Bernard Cully, associate director at JLL in the City and Canary Wharf, said that property values are remaining stable attributed to the number of properties becoming available on the market. He added: ‘The final weeks of the year are traditionally quite strong, with prospective buyers and sellers trying to conclude transactions ahead of the festive slowdown.” Strong activity in the rental market from summer through to the end of October has subsided with a decline in applicant registrations. Neil Short, head of City residential at JLL, said: ‘With applicant registrations slowing, we have seen examples of landlords undercutting one another in order to get their properties let quickly.”
9th December 2016
Tower Hamlets Council has published a Draft Local Plan, setting out how the borough will meet its need for housing, employment and amenities over the next 15 years. The blueprint aims to build a minimum of 10,000, and potentially up to 26,350, new homes on the Isle of Dogs and in south Poplar. Fifteen key sites have been identified, including Billingsgate Market, Hercules Wharf, and Clove Crescent, the latter pair situated close to East India Dock. Trilogy Property has already unveiled plans to transform the East India locale, by building a 650,000 sq ft tech and start-up campus and creating Europe’s longest freshwater outdoor swimming pool. "I chose the area by looking at where the young, energetic, bright, innovative people are going to live”, Robert Wolstenholme, founder of Trilogy Property, comments.
The Wharf (07/12/2016) Evening Standard (07/12/2016)
9th December 2016
Developer Cubitt Property Holdings and Make, Ken Shuttleworth’s architectural practice, have submitted new plans to Tower Hamlets Council for a residential tower at 225 Marsh Wall, on the Isle of Dogs. A prior application was recommended for refusal, on the grounds that it sought to “maximise, not optimise the development potential of the site”; the new proposal lops eight storeys off the tower, for a 48-storey structure to include 336 flats, 810 sq m of community floorspace, and 79 sq m of restaurant or retail space. The new scheme is expected to go to committee in March 2017.
Architects’ Journal (05/12/2016)
A former Victorian workhouse infirmary on the Mile End Road is being redeveloped into a walled estate of 252 homes, split between properties for private buyers, shared-ownership, and rental. The St Clements development backs on to Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Nature Reserve, and is just a few minutes’ walk away from the Central Line Tube station. Newly-built apartments on the grounds start at £440,000.
Evening Standard (30/11/2016)
9th December 2016
Zooplahas examined the impact on house prices in so-called "hipster hotspots” which attract young, creative upwardly-mobile people. Researchers found that six of the top ten UK hipster hotspots are in London, including Shoreditch, Stratford and Stoke Newington. Dalston in East London was identified as the top hipster hotspot, with property prices there having typically increased by nearly 60% over the past five years, now averaging £633,593.
The Daily Telegraph (05/12/2016)