Docklands News

Capital Economics forecast that house prices will keep rising this year, up by 9% at the end of 2022 compared with 2021. But analysts at the firm say homeowners should brace for a 5% fall in values across 2023 and 2024 brought on by a doubling of the average mortgage rate to 3.2% at the end of the year and a peak of 3.6% in mid-2023. Andrew Wishart at Capital Economics, said: “That would be the sharpest rise in mortgage rates since 1990.” Wishart expects the interest rate on new mortgages to rise from 1.6% at the start of this year to 3.6% by late 2023. 

The Daily Telegraph (27/04/2022)   The Times (27/04/2022)  

A new analysis of first-time buyer house prices looked at the cost of purchasing a first home before the start of the pandemic in December 2019 and how it has changed. The research shows that across Britain, the average first-time buyer paid £195,267 prior to the pandemic. Today this has climbed 17% to £228,627, meaning they are now paying £33,000 more, according to the data from Stipendium. First-time buyers in Wales have seen the largest percentage increase at 22%, while in London it stands at 8%, the lowest in the country. In Kensington and Chelsea, first-time buyers have seen the largest monetary increase, at £118,559. 

City AM (26/04/2022)  

The Times offers a guide to Canada Water, a former docklands on the Rotherhithe peninsula currently undergoing a $4bn regeneration that includes thousands of new homes, along with a leisure centre, a public square, shops, offices and an improved primary school. The first phase of the project, just one stop on the DLR from Canary Wharf, by the developer British Land, which owns most of the 53-acre site, will deliver 265 homes, of which 87 will be affordable. A new red timber pedestrian bridge, spanning the lake where the former docks were, will link Canada Water train station with the new town centre. The first three buildings are expected to be completed in 2024. Existing homes are in abundance, with the average property price over the past year at $498,443.

The Times (21/04/2022)  

In Deptford, a group of campaigners is making a last-ditch effort to change a development they feel could negatively affect the local community. Hong Kong-based developer Hutchison Whampoa has pushed to get plans for three huge towers of 38 and 48 storeys approved in the area, despite local resistance. But local group Voice 4 Deptford has produced what it says is a “greener” vision that recognises the climate emergency. It proposes weaving local history and culture into the site and replacing the towers – which activists say use more water than lower density blocks – with homes that have more shared space for children to play. 

The Guardian (18/04/2022)  

The number of new homes being listed for sale has risen for the first time in a year, according to surveyors. The latest RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) residential market survey said an increase in listings has helped drive a “modest” rise in sales last month. A net balance of 8% of property professionals witnessed a rise in the volume of fresh listings. The new figures also showed a net balance of 9% of respondents reporting a rise in new buyer enquiries for the month. Experts at the trade body said it was the first time since the pandemic that supply of properties and demand from potential buyers had been so closely aligned. In March, a balance of 74% of respondents saw a rise in house prices, almost identical to the average seen over the past 12 months, with the steepest increases in Wales, Northern Ireland and the north of England. A net 54% of respondents said rents had also risen.  

Daily Mail (15/04/2022)   Evening Standard (15/04/2022)   The Independent (15/04/2022)   The Times (15/04/2022)  

After more than a year of surging house prices, forecasters have predicted that the market has peaked and is likely to decline next year. "The prospects for the housing market over the medium term now appear gloomier," says Karl Thompson, an economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. He has predicted that house prices will fall by 2% in 2023. Mr Thompson is not the only one to call the top of the market, despite figures from the Office for National Statistics showing that house prices rose by 10.9% in the year to February. 

The Sunday Times (17/04/2022)