Docklands News

Developer Linkcity has been granted planning permission by the London Borough of Newham for Phase 4 of its Hallsville Quarter development masterplan in Canning Town. Phase 4 proposes a new mixed-use city block designed by architects PRP, which includes 377 purpose-built student accommodation rooms, a wide range of student amenity spaces including a first-floor garden and 7th-floor roof terrace and 487 square metres of new ground floor, flexible commercial floorspace and landscaped public realm. Ultimately, the Hallsville Quarter development will provide over 1,100 new homes, a new hotel, up to 30,000m2 of leisure, work and retail space with a new art-house style cinema, and community facilities including a new public health centre close to the Canning Town transport hub. 

Property Wire (23/01/2023)  

Knight Architects’ plans for a new bridge in Canary Wharf, east London, have been given the go ahead by Tower Hamlets council. The 70m-long footbridge crossing the South Dock will link Marsh Wall on the southern part of the Isle of Dogs financial district with Jubilee Park and Foster & Partners’ Canary Wharf tube station. It is intended to ease pressure on Wilkinson Eyre’s South Quay footbridge, which is currently the only north-south pedestrian link across the busy central part of the dock. Knight’s bridge is split into two sections either side of a single pier, with the northern side designed to lift up to allow small boats to pass underneath. Tower Hamlets’ strategic development committee said the scheme was a “high-quality and elegant design, considered appropriate to its contemporary surroundings” and would be a “…positive addition to the area and waterfront.”

Building Design (24/01/2023)  

HMRC figures reveals that UK house sales fell by 3% month-on-month in December. Analysis shows an estimated 101,920 homes were sold in December 2022, which was 1% higher than in December 2021 but 3% lower than in November 2022. During the same period year earlier, 1,049,450 house sales had taken place. The HMRC’s report said house sales had generally been stable in recent months but were slightly weaker in December. It added: “The impact of higher mortgages rates is only beginning to appear now because transactions data is based upon date of completion, and it typically takes between two to four months for a house sale to complete. Many buyers are still looking to proceed with their purchase in order to take advantage of pre-agreed mortgages with lower rates. The levels of current monthly property transactions are higher than late 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Daily Mail (24/01/2023)   The Independent (24/01/2023)  

New data reveals that the number of buyers pulling out of property sales and collapsed chains has increased sharply over the past three months. Analysis by TwentyCi, a property data company, found that the share of agreed sales collapsing before completion jumped to a high of 25.4% in November, up from 23% in October and 21% in September. This compares with a rate of 22% in November 2021, and 23% in the same month in 2019. In the week after the mini-Budget, the number of housing sales that fell through rose to around 7,900, from 5,890 previously, and then increased to 8,500 in each of the following two weeks. 

The Daily Telegraph (23/01/2023)  

The gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas of London has increased as house prices rise. Imperial College London tracked changes in life expectancy in thousands of areas between 2002 and 2019 and analysed these alongside data from the Land Registry. The study found that large gains in life expectancy occurred where house prices were already high, or in areas where house prices grew the most. But life expectancy inequality — the difference between the highest and lowest percentiles of the areas — increased substantially. The study said that areas where house prices grew the most saw an influx of “new, more educated and better-off” working age residents during the period. These areas also saw an “outflux of residents in retirement ages” as well as children, adolescents and young adults.

Evening Standard (20/01/2023)  

Developer Lendlease has submitted a hybrid planning application covering a near-50-acre site at the Royal Docks in Silvertown. The scheme would create around 6,500 homes, 50% of them affordable; it would also include refurbishing the long-derelict Millennium Mills building, where more than 780,000 sq ft of "next generation work and creative spaces’ would be created alongside a surrounding ‘employment quarter". Lendlease says the development would “embrace its dockside location” and benefit from the Custom House station on the Elizabeth Line. The developers said they will create one of the greenest new neighbourhoods in London, with all homes and commercial spaces supplied with hot water and heating through a zero-carbon district heating system.

Property Week (18/01/2023)