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A report from Halifax shows that flats have out-paced other property types in terms of price growth over the past five years, with values up 48%. Price rises for flats in London were even stronger, with a climb of 54%. Across Britain, the average price of a flat has increased by £75,074 over the period, equating to a £1,251 rise per month. Terraced homes rose by 41%, followed by semi-detached homes (39%), bungalows (38%) and detached homes (27%).
Daily Mail, (18/05/2018)
British Land has submitted a planning application to redevelop a 53-acre site at Canada Water, which includes the Surrey Quays shopping centre. According to the masterplan, the property group wants to create a new town centre and include 3,000 homes. The plans are also expected to deliver 2m sq ft of workspace and 1m sq ft of leisure and retail space. Work will begin next year with the project expected to be completed in 2033; the development’s first phase will provide around 650 homes. Later phases include a 45-storey residential tower and the refurbishment of the 119,000 sq ft printing plant into a events centre with 5,000-capacity.
Financial Times (14/05/2018) Property Week (14/05/2018)
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)