020 7538 0102
27th January 2017
Research from consumer group Which? has identified Barking and Dagenham as London’s biggest baby boom hotspot, saying it has the capital’s highest birth rate and its most affordable house prices. Property values in the borough average £287,978 while its birth-rate is 19.1 per 1,000 residents. Newham, where the average home value stands at £366,485, took the second spot, with Waltham Forest, Greenwich and Hackney making up the top five. David Blake, principal mortgage adviser at Which? Mortgage Advisers, commented: “Starting a family is often a time when people consider moving. Our research gives an indication of some of the most affordable places to buy”.
Evening Standard (23/01/2017)
27th January 2017
Building societies are currently offering better fixed mortgage rates than banks, a study has found. Across different types of mortgage, building societies' rates are on average up to 0.66 percentage points lower than banks' equivalent rates. The biggest gap is where borrowers with a 25% deposit opt for a five-year fixed rate deal; the average rate offered by banks is 3%, while building societies' equivalent rate is 2.34%. Charlotte Nelson, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said that at the moment five out of six two-year fixed rate "best buys" were from building societies.
The Daily Telegraph (25/01/2017)
20th January 2017
A small batch of shared ownership apartments in the 31-storey Dollar Bay tower at South Quay on the Isle of Dogs will go on sale on Thursday, January 26th, with prices starting at £136,250 for a quarter of a one-bedroom apartment and £206,250 for the same share in a two-bed. Designed by architects SimpsonHaugh and Partners, Dollar Bay is just 12 minutes’ walk away from Canary Wharf; apartments in the tower feature integrated appliances and private winter gardens. The Times looks at shared ownership, which involves buying a stake of between 25 and 75% of a property and paying rent on the remainder as an option for hard-pressed first-time buyers. Research from Which? shows that the average salary of a shared-ownership buyer in London is £45,000. It found affordability rapidly improves going into zone two, where the bulk of shared-ownership properties were located. Ten per cent of shared-ownership properties were affordable for those earning £27,900, the average person under 29 earns in London.
The Wharf (19/01/2017) The Times (14/01/2017)
20th January 2017
Analysis by Savills indicates homes priced lower than £300,000 are now an “endangered species” in London as demand increases values in the capital’s last affordable areas. Of the 40 such neighbourhoods left, 15 are in Barking and Dagenham, five in Bexley, four in Croydon, and three in Havering. The analysis also shows that for the first time, there were more wards with a price average of over £1m than there were with under £300,000. The £300,000 barrier is seen as significant as it represents the outer limit of affordability for a typical London household.
Evening Standard (18/01/2017)
20th January 2017
London has topped the first Alpha Cities Index, scoring 77 out of 100 in the global rankings designed to determine the most desirable city in which to purchase a high end property.
Financial Times (29/01/2017)
20th January 2017
House price inflation picked up to 6.7% in the year to the end of November, according to the ONS, which said the average price of a UK home in November was £218,000, up £2,000 on October’s average and £14,000 higher than November 2015. England’s average property is now valued at £234,000; regionally, East of England saw average prices climb 10.5% in the year to November, while those in London were up 8.1% and the South East of England saw a 7.2% increase.
The Daily Telegraph (17/01/2017)