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20th October 2017
A Notting Hill mansion is set to go on the market this month but owners of the £17m-valued home will not accept cash, insisting that buyers will have to use the Bitcoin digital currency. Lev Loginov, co-founder of property investor London Wall, which bought the property in 2013, hopes to pioneer Bitcoin deals in Britain. Pointing to the appeal of the cryptocurrency, he voices a belief that it is “really going to change how real estate transactions are conducted.” The Standard notes that while other sellers have said they are willing to accept Bitcoin, this is the first where it is the only payment method the seller will deal in.
Evening Standard (13/10/2017
20th October 2017
First-time buyers are increasingly choosing long mortgage terms of up to 35 years in order to be able to afford a property. Mortgage broker London & Country said the proportion of new buyers taking out mortgages of 31-35 years has doubled to 22% in 10 years, while the proportion taking out mortgages of 21-25 years has fallen from 59% to 39%.
The Sunday Times (15/10/2017)
13th October 2017
Tower Hamlets Council’s strategic development committee has rejected Make Architects’ revised plans for a residential tower block at 225 Marsh Wall on the Isle of Dogs, even though a report from the authority’s planning officers recommended it be given the go-ahead. The skyscraper, designed on behalf of Cubitt Property Holdings, would have stood 46 storeys tall, 20m lower than the originally-intended 55 floors, housing 332 apartments, with 25% set aside as affordable housing. It also proposed 810 sq m of community or office floorspace, and 79 sq m of flexible retail, restaurant and community facilities. The scheme was rejected, however, on the grounds of excessive scale and height; with a density of 3,354 habitable rooms per hectare, it was well above the London Plan’s maximum of 1,100 per hectare.
Architects’ Journal (11/10/2017)
13th October 2017
Developer London Square has launched a 95-apartment scheme at Quebec Way in Rotherhithe, a 10-minute walk from Canada Water’s Jubilee Line station. The development is part of a new community forming around Rotherhithe, with 3,500 new homes planned , along with offices, shops, cafés, restaurants, and a three-and-a-half acre park; the building encloses a landscaped courtyard, and sports a tasteful design of lattice-effect external brickwork with recessed balconies and roof terraces. Prices for the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments start at £525,000.
Evening Standard (09/10/2017)
13th October 2017
Just 3,477 new homes are projected to be built this year in London transport zones five and six, according to business group London First, down almost a quarter from last year’s 4,523. The figure is 42% of the London Plan target and 17% of the number needed under a proposed new methodology announced by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid. London First expects 42,543 homes to be built in the more central zones this year, a total that is 80% of the Government’s new estimate of 53,776 that are needed - but more than the 34,194 that the current London Plan says must be built.
Evening Standard (09/10/2017)
13th October 2017
Figures from Halifax show that the average cost of a British home was 4% higher in the three months to September compared to the same period a year ago, hitting an average of £225,109. Average values were 1.4% higher between July and September than they were in the previous three months - the biggest increase since February - with prices up 0.8% in September alone. September’s annual rate of growth reached 4%, up on August’s 2.6%.
The Independent (07/10/2017)