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Plans to build a new twin-road toll tunnel beneath the River Thames in east London have been approved by the Department for Transport. The Silvertown Tunnel will link the Royal Docks north of the river with the Greenwich Peninsula in the south. Transport for London said the route will cut congestion and ease pressure on the Blackwall Tunnel, but opponents believe it will increase air pollution. The tunnel is expected to be operational from 2023. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the crossing "is vital for the future prosperity of east London."
BBC News (10/05/2018)
Construction of luxury flats in central London dropped by 25.4% last year, according to London Residential Research. The decline occurred in seven of the 11 inner London boroughs in the study, with a 62% fall in Southwark and 42% in Wandsworth and Westminster. In total, new-build starts in the inner boroughs fell by 3,810 units, and builders have delayed work on an additional 13,800 units. Naomi Heaton, the chief executive of LCP, said developers were scaling back after realising there was "a huge oversupply of over-commoditised new-build boxes" in the capital.
The Guardian (14/05/2018)
Mortgage lending to first-time buyers increased by 2% in March, to £5.1bn, according to UK finance, as first-time buyer mortgages completed in the month fell 1.9% to 31,200. There was £6.1bn of new lending to home-movers in the month, 4.7% down year-on-year, with 28,400 new home-mover mortgages completed in the month, 7.8% fewer than in the same month a year earlier. UK Finance found 32,400 homeowners remortgaged in March, down from 36,800 a year earlier. The value of mortgages taken out by landlords in March fell by 20% compared with the same month of 2017, with the 5,500 buy-to-let loans taken out in the month down from 6,800 a year ago.
The Daily Telegraph (16/05/2018)
Tower Hamlets is London's quietest neighbourhood, according to new research by Barratt Homes, which has ranked the 32 London boroughs by noise levels and found that the east London enclave recorded the lowest average decibels (dB) levels across the capital at 53.3 dB. Sutton was second (53.8 dB) and Waltham Forest (56.1 dB) third, Croydon fourth at 56.5 dB and Ealing fifth at 57.3 dB. Islington was recorded as the noisiest.
The Daily Telegraph (15/05/2018)
House prices saw the biggest dip since 2012 in April, led by the upper tier of the property market. Rics said a net balance of 8% of surveyors reported prices falling rather than rising, with falls in London weighing down the overall price growth reading across the UK. In the capital, a balance of 65% of surveyors saw prices fall over the month rather than rise - the weakest reading since February 2009. Nearly seven in 10 surveyors reported that sales prices were coming in below asking prices for properties valued above £1m, while 59% said sales prices were either at the same level or slightly above asking prices for properties marketed at £500,000 or less. Regionally, drops in prices were reported in the South East and South West, for the first time since May 2013; Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland saw rises.
The Daily Telegraph (10/05/2018) The Times (10/05/2018)
The scale of London's super-basement craze has been revealed in a study that found 4,650 had been approved in a decade. Around 1,000 gyms, 550 media and cinema rooms, 380 pools, 380 wine stores and 120 staff rooms have been uncovered in plans for huge basements built between 2008 and 2017. In total 112 'mega basements' with three or more storeys had been approved, and 785 'large' basements with two or more storeys, the Newcastle University study shows.
Daily Mail (08/05/2018)