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New research from Savills reveals that a four-bedroom house in London now costs almost £1m — an average of £990,000. The figures are based on the assumption that a London owner selling a three-bed home will have made £440,000 in equity over 10 years. "Even with equity, a leap from one London property size to another is enormous," says Sara Ransom, managing director of Stacks London Property Search. She explains that most areas of the capital suffer from a dearth of supply between a standard terrace and a much bigger house.
Source: The Sunday Times (16/12/2018)
Red Lion Court in Wapping, the first local warehouse refurbishment for over a decade, is helping Wapping to recapture its reputation for being London’s top spot for riverside living. The former grain store, located on the Thames beside a small park, has been converted to host 22 apartments, including penthouses with full-height glass walls and a roof terrace. Prices in the building, just a short ride away from Canary Wharf, start at £525,000 and rise to £1.4m.
Evening Standard (16/12/2018)
UK house price growth has hit a five-year low, according to the Office for National Statistics, with London weathering the lowest annual growth in the country at -1.7%. Annual growth in October was 2.7% in England, slowing from 3% in September, while average prices fell by 0.2% between September and October, taking the average UK house price to £231,000. The strongest annual growth (4.9%) was recorded in the North West, while growth in the North East dropped to -0.1%. The average house price rose annually in Wales by 3.8% to reach £161,000; by 4.4% in Scotland to £152,000; and 4.8% in Northern Ireland to £135,000.
The Daily Telegraph (19/12/2018)
Rics has said house prices will stagnate in 2019 and the number of sales will fall as Brexit and affordability constraints take their toll on the property market. Rics expects house sales to fall by 5% to about 1.15m compared with this year. Prices will be static in East Anglia and the south-west, but the body forecasts "solid momentum" behind price rises in Northern Ireland, the north-west, Scotland and Wales. Tarrant Parsons, Rics economist, said Brexit uncertainty had caused “greater hesitancy” – but a shortage of stock also continued to present buyers with limited choice, while stretched affordability is pricing many people out, he added. However Rics dismissed Bank of England projections of a possible 30% fall in house prices after a disorderly Brexit: "Some of the assumptions behind the disorderly Brexit scenario seem implausible to us.”
The Guardian (17/12/2018) City AM (17/12/2018)
Lawyers, accountants and doctors who have deposits of as little as 10% are being offered the chance to borrow up to six times their income, the Times reports. Dilpreet Bhagrath of online mortgage broker Trussle says: "It's hugely positive to see lenders accommodating the need for higher income multiples in line with increasing house prices and living costs. Lenders are acknowledging that people are struggling to get on to the property ladder and that, for many, previous loan sizes are just not enough."
The Times (14/12/2018)
A short walk away from Canary Wharf, the £1bn Millharbour Quarter development will one day be home to 4,000 Londoners, living in a new cluster of skyscrapers beside Marsh Wall and Millwall Inner Dock. Able Quay, part of the Harbour Central scheme, has been described by housebuilder Ballymore as a Hong Kong-style “vertical village”, featuring its own shops, offices, leisure facilities, schools and about 1,500 new homes in a series of towers of up to 41 storeys. Prices start from £138,000 for a 30% share of a one-bedroom apartment with a full market value of £460,000.
Evening Standard (13/12/2018)