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Foster + Partners’ £3bn masterplan for 5,000 new homes on a 16ha strip of land at the Royal Docks has been rejected by Newham Council. A hybrid application was submitted for the Silvertown site, including outline plans for 18,600m² of industrial and workspace along with 7,000m² of shops, restaurants and bars, along with detailed proposals for a John McAslan + Partners-designed first phase with 460 homes and 3,417m² of flexible office space on the site of the former Carlsberg brewery. Concerns raised by planning officers included a lack of integrated designs for the scheme’s cluster of ‘overbearing, bulky and incongrous’ towers and the scheme’s ’excessive density’ given the site’s poor access to public transport. A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, said: “Newham Council has now referred this application to the Greater London Authority and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills will consider it on its merits during the next two weeks”.
Architects’ Journal (15/11/2019)
Fresh figures from the Greater London Authority show construction began on 2,202 homes between July and September, a slowdown on the 2,672 started between April and June. The target figure for 2019-20 is to start an average of 4,874 a quarter. A spokesperson for Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was still on track to hit his target for the year, as he did last year, as house building is generally backloaded heavily to the final two quarters, adding: “This year the mayor has delivered more than double the number of starts compared to the same period last year”.
City AM (17/11/2019) Evening Standard (17/11/2019)
UK house prices will not match low inflation until 2021, according to new research by Reuters. The continuing Brexit malaise will cause prices to fall 1.5% in London this year, Reuters said. Elsewhere in the UK, house prices are predicted to rise 1% this year, 1.5 % next year and 2.3% in 2021, according to the poll of 27 property market analysts. Meanwhile, inflation is forecast to be 1.9%, 1.9% and 2% respectively. “Even if a Brexit deal is implemented soon, we expect to see only a small improvement in housing market transactions and house price growth over the next two years,” said Hansen Lu at Capital Economics.
City AM (20/11/2019) Daily Mail (20/11/2019)
Figures from UK Finance show there were 29,100 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in September, a 1.6% increase on September 2018. The number of home movers was also up year-on-year, climbing 1.8%, but these were outnumbered by those taking their first step onto the property ladder, with 50 more first-timers than movers. The data also shows that 5,500 new buy-to-let home purchase mortgages were completed in September, a dip of 3.5% on the same month a year ago. September saw 17,740 new remortgages with additional borrowing, a 5.9% rise, while re-mortgages with no additional borrowing were up 8% on September 2018, with 19,140 completed. Former Rics chairman Jeremy Leaf said: “It is good to see more first-time buyer mortgages completed, showing how this group are continuing to take the place of buy-to-let landlords”. A separate report found that almost half of adults in the UK are unaware that there are schemes to help first-time buyers get onto the housing ladder – and only one in five people can name any of the three main schemes. Research from Trussle also found that fewer than one in 10 of us find the Help to Buy Equity Loan, Shared Ownership and the Lifetime ISA easy to understand. And it warns that thousands eligible are set to miss out on the benefits of the Help to Buy ISA, which closes for applications at the end of the month, simply because they didn't know it existed.
The Times (19/11/2019) Daily Mail (19/11/2019) The Independent (15/11/2019)
Vertus has unveiled the first of three apartment buildings being developed by the build-to-rent operator for Canary Wharf Group. The apartments will be available to rent early next year, and will start from £1,950 per month. Alastair Mullens, head of Vertus, comments: “As a new residential landlord for Canary Wharf, Vertus will provide a fantastic experience for those who rent with Vertus, with varied facilities, an exciting events programme and 24/7 concierge, all this without the commitment of buying.”
Property Wire (12/11/2019)
Galliard Homes is set to develop a £140m luxury residential and retail development above Tottenham Court Road’s Crossrail station. Tottenham Court Road West (TCRW) will include 92 flats – with prices for a studio apartment starting at £899,000 – and 9,939 sq ft of ground-floor retail space. The scheme is expected to take 30 months to build and to open in summer 2022. Galliard Homes chief executive Don O’Sullivan said: “TCRW will provide world-class apartments in an unrivalled location off Oxford Street in the heart of London’s West End. Galliard’s new apartment buildings are integrated with the Crossrail interchange offering residents easy access to London Heathrow, Canary Wharf and locations such as Bond Street and Liverpool Street.”
Evening Standard (12/11/2019) City AM (12/11/2019