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Specialist regeneration developer and investor U+I has submitted plans for a mixed-use development at Morden Wharf, close to the O2 Arena on the Greenwich Peninsula. Once complete the mixed-use scheme will deliver around 1,500 new homes across 12 tower blocks, hundreds of jobs and more than six acres of public realm, including a landscaped park along the River Thames. The plans may also provide a new permanent boathouse for the Queen’s Royal Rowbarge, Gloriana. A planning decision is expected to made by the end of 2020.
Property Week (22/06/2020) UK Investor (22/06/2020)
House sales showed signs of slow recovery in May, increasing 16% on the month before, but they were still at only half the level seen a year earlier. The figures from HM Revenue and Customs show that an estimated 48,450 residential property transactions took place across the UK during May. This was 49.6% lower than the number seen in May 2019, when there were 96,050 sales recorded. HMRC said the figures should be taken with caution, as they were "provisional" and - due to the lockdown - based on incomplete data. Transaction numbers in the second quarter of this year have fallen to levels similar to those seen in late 2008 and in early 2009, following the financial crisis
Sky News (23/06/2020) The Times (23/06/2020)
Property transactions are being hit with new "coronavirus clauses". If there are complications after exchanging contracts, such as a person not being able to move or losing a mortgage offer, these allow the completion date to be delayed or a party to pull out of the purchase. Builds will be particularly affected, as completion dates after exchange are often not set and can be months in the future, and Andrew Boast of SAM Conveyancing said coronavirus clauses should be the norm in new-build sales.
The Daily Telegraph (19/06/2020)
The government has confirmed it is to extend planning permission deadlines under new measures to stimulate the building of thousands of new homes as the UK emerges from the COVID-19 lockdown. Under the changes announced by Robert Jenrick, planning approvals with an expiry date between the start of lockdown in March and the end of this year will be extended to 1 April 2021. Existing planning rules mean that development permissions usually expire after three years if work has not been started. However, hundreds of projects with expiry dates during the lockdown period were put in jeopardy. It said the changes would help these developments to resume as the economy recovers.
The Guardian (22/06/2020)
Canary Wharf Group has completed 10 Park Drive, its first private sale residential building, at Wood Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. Since launching in 2015, only 70 apartments remain at the development, with current purchasers set to move in through June. The remaining one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments are available from £900,000. Residents will have access to a private sky terrace on the 13th floor, with bookable facilities and free use of shared spaces. Purchasers also have access to a state-of-the-art new health and fitness club, in partnership with luxury fitness lifestyle brand Third Space. The space includes a swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and fitness class studio.
Property Funds World (18/06/2020)
Regeneration specialist Hadley Property Group has completed the purchase of its largest site to date, Blackwall Yard in east London, from Thomson Reuters. The 4.2 acre riverfront site, which sits near Canary Wharf and faces the o2 Arena across the Thames, will be transformed into a new neighbourhood with 850 homes - a mix of affordable and market sale - a primary school, shops, cafés and a sustainable transport hub.Hadley plans to reveal details of its proposals, which also include converting the Blackwall Yard Graving Dock, closed to the public for more than 50 years, into an outdoor swimming pool, at a series of digital consultation events early next month.
Property Week (18/06/2020)