Docklands News

Three-quarters of UK adults are worried about rising living costs, with the sandwich generation of 45-64-year-olds the most anxious. Some 35% feel more anxious about the future compared with before the pandemic, rising to 42% among people aged 45-54. The data comes from Aviva, who said one in five people have spent extra savings made in lockdown.  

City AM (13/10/2021)  

Poplar Riverside, a new East London development by St William, part of the Berkeley Group, occupies 20 acres on the banks of the River Lea, and will bring 2,800 studio, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, a school and park, as well as a gym, creche, shops, restaurants, and cafes to the area. Designed to cater to modern lifestyles, the development will also bring over 16,000 sq ft of stylish residents’ facilities. The Riverside Club will include a 20m swimming pool, a vitality pool, salt inhalation room, steam room, and private treatment room. A vibrant social scene will also be created thanks to a Den Lounge, private hire dining rooms, cinema, and games room. It is ideally positioned for commuters, with East India and Canning Town Stations a 15 minute walk away, and network of cycle routes meaning Canary Wharf is just 12 minutes away. Home workers can take advantage of exclusive workspace facilities, including a large business lounge with open-plan spaces and meeting rooms. Prices at Poplar Riverside start from £390,000. 

Salon Privé Magazine (03/10/2021)  

House prices rose at their fastest monthly pace since 2007 in September, according to the Halifax, with more than £4,400 added to the average price of a home. The monthly growth of 1.7% pushed the average price up to a record £267,587 with annual house price inflation now at 7.4%. “Looking at price changes over the past year, prices for flats are up just 6.1% , compared to 8.9% for semi-detached properties and 8.8% for detached. This translates into cash increases for detached properties of nearly £41,000 compared to just £6,640 for flats,” Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, said. 

Daily Mail (07/10/2021)   Financial Times (07/10/2021)  

House price increases in the wake of the COVID pandemic have outstripped stamp duty holiday savings almost 30 times over. In July 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak raised the nil-rate stamp duty band from £125,000 to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland, meaning that buyers who completed sales by June 30 2021 saved a maximum of £15,000. After this date, the holiday tapered to £250,000 until Sept 30. However, the incentive to transact before the deadline helped to push house prices up far beyond the amount that buyers could save in tax. in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, average house prices rose 18% in the 12-month period after the stamp duty holiday was introduced. The average home is now worth £20,590 more than a year ago, the Office for National Statistics found. In two-thirds of English council areas, house price rises in the year to the end of July were at least triple the average stamp duty holiday savings in each area under the £500,000 nil-rate band. In 60 local authorities, price rises in the 12 months after the stamp duty holiday was introduced were more than 20 times the average stamp duty savings under the tapered £250,000 nil rate band. The areas where house price increases eclipsed stamp duty savings to the most extreme degree were concentrated in the North and Midlands. 

The Daily Telegraph (01/10/2021)  

The Land Registry with has been flooded with complaints as property buyers face losing thousands of pounds in stamp duty savings and seeing purchases collapse due to delays at the Government's record office. More than 1,000 complaints about the organisation were made in June alone this year - a 208% increase compared with June 2020 and a 253% rise compared with June 2019. Buyers who completed before June 30 could save a maximum of £15,000 in tax. Those buying between July and September could save up to £2,500. Tax bands returned to normal from October 1st. William Marriott of Charles Russell Speechlys, said: "It’s probable that if a title had not been registered, or if there were outstanding queries with Land Registry, that some transactions would have failed to complete before the deadline." 

The Daily Telegraph (06/10/2021)  

New planning laws have been promised that will block the development of “ugly” buildings as ministers reverse plans to limit the power of local residents to veto development. The new housing secretary, Michael Gove, is understood to have ordered a review of the planning reforms and has scrapped proposals to limit the power of local planning committees to block housebuilding. Mr Gove is also said to want to make housing companies pay more to local communities to improve amenities in areas where development takes place. Last month ministers signalled the start of a retreat from what had been billed as the biggest shake-up of planning law in 70 years, designed to help reach a target of 300,000 new homes a year. Government sources said the upcoming planning bill was likely to be much less radical than previously envisaged and could amount to little more than a "tidying up exercise" of the present rules. "There is always a danger with planning reforms that you actually slow down the pace of development because builders are waiting for the new rules to come into place," one said. 

The Times (04/10/2021)