Docklands News

Hackney has been named as the London borough with the most streets covered by low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) schemes, with LTNs in force in 55% of streets for which they are considered appropriate. The annual survey, by the Healthy Streets Scorecard coalition, found that Waltham Forest had the second highest level of LTN coverage (47%), followed by Newham with 40%. By contrast, fewer than 5% of roads in Croydon, Barking and Dagenham and Bexley were in LTNs, while Islington was found to be the capital's top "healthy streets" borough overall, followed by Hackney and Camden. The overall assessment included other factors like pedestrian and cyclist casualties, school streets schemes, and 20mph limits. 

Evening Standard (07/07/2021)  

Pre-pandemic, it was easy to dismiss Canary Wharf as a business district where people only lived because they worked there. However, even in the post-COVID "new normal", where many financial and legal professionals are likely to be offered the chance to conduct business from home at least some of the time, there are plenty of reasons to want to live in one of the district's new luxury apartments. Options include the £2.645m three-bed Executive Collection apartment at South Quay Plaza, a two-bed penthouse at Wardian for £2.35m, and a three-bed, triplex penthouse  - with a double-height room dedicated to a panoramic Jacuzzi - in Dollar Bay for £3.999m. Nearly everyone is buying them as a primary residence and they are attracted to the new parks, gardens and riverside boardwalk in the first completed phase of our new neighbourhood, Wood Wharf", explains Brian De'ath, head of residential sales at Canary Wharf Group. The Far East Consortium, meanwhile, has developed Aspen, a 65-storey residential tower. Project director Bruno Santos says the building is as much about its services and amenities as its residences, from the hotel doctor on call to vending machines selling freshly-made bread. “We’re seeing a lot of interest from families who don’t work in Canary Wharf but want to live there because it’s an easily walkable neighbourhood,” he said.

The Daily Telegraph (30/06/2021)  

Nationwide figures show that UK house prices rose 13.4% in the year to June, the fastest pace since November 2004. The average house price increased to a record high of £245,432 from £216,403 in June 2020. The data show that all parts of the UK saw a rise in house prices in Q2, with Northern Ireland and Wales seeing the largest year-on-year increases, with values up 14% and 13.1% respectively. Month-on-month, UK house prices were up 0.7%. Price rises have been driven by a number of factors, including the stamp duty holiday and a mortgage guarantee scheme to help people with a 5% deposit get on the property ladder. Nationwide’s chief economist Robert Gardner commented: “Activity will almost inevitably soften for a period after the stamp duty holiday expires at the end of September, given the strong incentive for people to bring forward their purchases to avoid the additional tax.” 

BBC News (29/06/2021)   Daily Mail (29/06/2021)   Financial Times (29/06/2021)   Sky News (29/06/2021)  

Analysts are predicting that Britain's property buying bonanza will top a record-breaking £100bn this summer, with buyers expected to snap up 420,000 homes during this month, July and August - spending a record £107bn. That would make it the highest grossing quarter in UK residential market history. The rush to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday, higher wages, the COVID vaccine success and a stronger post-pandemic economy are fuelling the spending surge, according to JLL. Nick Whitten, head of living research at JLL, said: "Our data suggests this post-lockdown summer will set a new record... We can expect to see demand swallowing up available stock, pushing up prices." The spike in activity will be particularly evident in the north of England, which is predicted to see around 100,000 sales - around 25% of the total UK.

Sunday Express (27/06/2021)  

The cost of buying a first-time property outright has increased from £154,000 in 1974 to £254,000 now, according to the Resolution Foundation. Millennials born in the 1980s have got the “rawest deal”, enduring rapid house price rises and tighter credit conditions, despite lower interest rates helping to ease mortgage borrowing costs, the think tank said. A typical UK first-time buyer in 1974 would have paid £90,000 in net interest by the end of their mortgage, compared to £63,000 for a first-time buyer now, the research found. In London, a typical first-time buyer now faces spending £500,000-plus over the course of the lifetime of a mortgage to purchase their first home – two-and-a-half times as much as in 1974. An equivalent buyer in the North East of England will incur a cost of £150,000 – around 9% more than the typical first-time buyer in that region in 1974. These variations make it potentially harder for young people today to move from one area to another, the report said. 

Daily Express (25/06/2021)   The Independent (25/06/2021)   The Times (25/06/2021)  

Old Kent Road was the cheapest space available on the Monopoly board at a cost of £60 when the game launched in Britain in the 1930s. But today, the average asking price for the postcode sits at £1,181,577, according to new research. Real-life renters pay an average of £2,574 per month; a far cry from the £10 coughed up by Monopoly players to rent a house on the road. Meanwhile property prices on Whitechapel Road, which shares the cheapest spot with Old Kent Road on the Monopoly board, are almost 50% more expensive than the capital's average. Average asking prices for this postcode in east London currently sit at £730,284 and tenants pay an average of £1,955 per month.

The Daily Telegraph (28/06/2021)