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Developers are taking a technological leap forward this spring, offering home buyers virtual tours inside properties and around neighbourhoods. Galliard has 6,500 homes across the capital on sale via virtual viewings, including at its 642-unit Harbour Central luxury development on the Isle of Dogs, where prices start from £699,000. Online viewers can also take a look around Galliard’s 338-unit Orchard Wharf, on the west bank of the River Lea in Newham. Prices there begin at £483,000.
Daily Mail (13/04/2020) The Scotsman (13/04/2020) The Daily Telegraph (13/04/2020)
The London Property Alliance, a consortium of London developers and landlords, has urged Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick to announce a two-year extension to existing planning permissions, to ensure that permissions don’t expire as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. The group has also called for the reintroduction of flexibilities, used during the global financial crisis, that allow developers to renegotiate section 106 obligations such as the provision of affordable housing.
Housing Today (15/04/2020)
One in nine UK homeowners has taken a so-called “mortgage holiday” as their finances have been hit by the effects of COVID-19. Lenders have agreed that 1.2m homeowners can delay repayments as jobs are cut and wages reduced. Typically, this defers a mortgage bill of £775 a month, with borrowers given the option of delaying up to three months of repayments. More are likely to take up the option, which should not affect credit ratings. However, the scheme has drawn criticism after it was revealed that banks are set to make more than £600m in extra interest paid by cash-strapped homeowners taking payment holidays.
BBC News (14/04/2020) Daily Mail (14/04/2020)
Tower Hamlets Council has asked the High Court to review Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick’s decision to approve PLP Architecture’s Westferry Printworks scheme. The development, which will deliver 1,524 new homes in towers of 19 to 44 storeys, was given the green light by Mr Jenrick in January against the advice of both Tower Hamlets council and planning inspector David Prentis, who presided over an inquiry into the scheme. The council said the decision to approve was made just one day before changes to Tower Hamlets’ Community Infrastructure Levy charges had been adopted, and that the updated levels would have required the developer to pay “significantly more”.
Building Design (06/04/2020)
The latest Halifax research has revealed that UK house prices were up 3% year on year in March, but remained flat on a monthly basis. However lockdown measures introduced in response to coronavirus at the end of the month have seen buyers and sellers put house moves on hold, with a negative trend predicted for house prices as a result. Across the UK, the average property price in March was £240,384, compared with £240,461 in February, Halifax Managing Director Russell Galley remarked: “The UK housing market began March with similar trends to previous months,” continuing: “However, it’s clear we ended the month in very different territory”.
The Independent (07/04/2020) The I (07/04/2020) Daily Mirror (07/04/2020) City AM (07/04/2020) Daily Mail (07/04/2020)
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is urging the government to introduce an emergency stamp duty holiday to help revitalise the housing market after it came to a standstill as the COVID-19 crisis gripped the nation. Hew Edgar, of RICS, said: “The Government will need to start considering medium and long-term measures that could assist a post-pandemic housing market. As we start to emerge from this crisis, however, it is likely that the finances of potential homebuyers will be under strain, and the burden of stamp duty could put buyers off.” Edgar continues: "For those who can afford to move they may lack confidence in the market, adding to the slowdown. A stamp duty holiday could be one of the ways to reactivate the housing market quickly as a short-term measure.”
The Daily Telegraph (08/04/2020)