Docklands News

Data from Nationwide shows that the pace of house price growth hit a 17-year high in March. Annual growth in house prices hit 14.3%, with this the steepest increase since November 2004. The jump in prices has taken the price of the average UK home up £33,000 in a year to a record high of £265,312. Wales led the way, with the average price up 15.3% in a year, while London has the highest average price at £518,333 despite prices climbing at the far slower rate of 7.4%. The report notes that house prices are now more than a fifth higher than when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020. Nationwide said robust demand, limited supply and a strong jobs market are pushing up prices, with the market experiencing “a surprising amount of momentum given the mounting pressure on household budgets and the steady rise in borrowing costs". Nationwide expects house price growth to slow in the year ahead, with high inflation rates and interest rate increases set to have an impact.

BBC News (31/03/2022)   Daily Mail (31/03/2022)   The i (31/03/2022)   The Times (31/03/2022)  

The total value of mortgages lent rocketed last month as buyers face more affordability tests. Some 70,933 mortgages were given the green light in February, compared to 73,841 in January, according to the Bank of England's monthly money and credit figures. However, the total value lent rose from £16.6bn to £16.7bn, meaning the average value of a mortgage loan is 10.4% higher than this time last year. The average mortgage was £235,474 in February, up 4.6% month-on-month. Approvals for remortgaging with a different lender rose to 48,200 in February. This was the highest total for remortgage loans since February 2020 but still below the average seen in the year leading up to the pandemic. 

City AM (29/03/2022)   Daily Mail (29/03/2022)   Evening Standard (29/03/2022)   The Guardian (29/03/2022)  

Homeowners have been hit with higher borrowing costs as lenders pass on the Bank of England’s interest rate rise. Halifax, Santander, Lloyds, Nationwide and Skipton Building Society all added 0.25 percentage points to their standard variable rate deals last week, just days after Threadneedle Street increased official interest rates from 0.5% to 0.75%. The lowest mortgage rates have doubled in the past six months and borrowers are now paying £840 a year more for the average loan than they did in October last year, analysis shows. 

The Daily Telegraph (25/03/2022)  

A revised home information pack-inspired form, providing more upfront property information for prospective buyers to speed up the conveyancing process, has been unveiled by a stakeholder group helping the government. Unique property reference numbers and smart home system information have been added to the Buyer's and Seller's Property Information form (BASPI), designed by the Home Buyers and Sellers Group. The form now includes requirements such as the unique property reference number, shared ownership information, leasehold details, spray foam insulation, smart home systems information and whether the property has a digital logbook – which will have to be transferred on completion – and where it is held.

Law Society Gazette (31/03/2022)  

Canary Wharf Group has laid out plans to build one of the largest commercial labs in Europe, as the landlord moves to set up a life sciences cluster in east London. The Group and Kadans Science Partner have announced a joint venture to develop the 750,000 square foot life-science focussed hub, understood to be in the range of hundreds-of-millions of pounds. “We are creating a world class building that will provide state of the art laboratory, office and innovation space for some of the most exciting and fast-growing businesses in the health and life sciences sector,” Canary Wharf Group CEO Shobi Khan said. 

City AM (30/03/2022)   Financial Times (30/03/2022)  

A planning inspector has rejected TateHindle’s "overbearing" design for a 25-storey residential tower in Canary Wharf. The plans involved the demolition of Muriel Crescent, an eight-storey commercial building on Canary Wharf’s waterside, which would have been replaced by 151 flats. Tower Hamlets Council refused the plans last summer, arguing that the new homes would not have a ‘satisfactory internal living environment’, the tower would be "overbearing" and that other issues relating to energy, microclimate and waste management were "inadequate" or not considered. The developer, Meadow Partners, appealed the decision but planning inspector Christa Masters backed Tower Hamlets’ original decision. She commented: "The space would fail to provide a satisfactory living environment for potential future occupiers. With the exception of the first floor, the outdoor amenity space would fail to be a high quality and useable feature for future residents".

Architects' Journal (22/03/2022)