020 7538 0102
15th January 2016
Balfour Beatty has reportedly signed a pre-construction deal with developer LBS Properties, to build a 53-storey apartment block in South Quay. The Madison Tower development, at Marsh Wall, will house 423 luxury flats on a hexagonal floor plate, designed by architect Make, and will feature a private residents’ club on the 16th floor with lounge bar, gym, meeting and screening rooms, as well as a spa and pool area on the lower ground floor. Work is expected to begin this summer.
The Wharf (11/01/2016)
15th January 2016
Nearly a hundred of the UK’s worst sink estates could be bulldozed to make way for better homes as part of a “blitz” on poverty unveiled by David Cameron. The prime minister pledged that “brutal high-rise towers” and “bleak” housing will be torn down in an effort to tackle drug abuse and gang culture. In a keynote speech, Mr Cameron will make a link with the 2011 riots, claiming three out of four rioters came from sink estates. The £140m redevelopment programme is to be overseen by Michael Heseltine. His estate regeneration advisory panel has been told to produce a full blueprint by the time of the chancellor’s autumn statement.
The Times (10/01/2016)
15th January 2016
Nationally, rents increased by 4.9% in 2015 to an average of £739 a month, and surged 8% in London, to £1,596, according to figures by HomeLet. But for the first time in many years, cities outside the capital saw the biggest rent rises. Tenants in Brighton and Bristol suffered the biggest rent rises in Britain during 2015, as landlords raised prices by an average of 18% compared with the year before. David Gibson, a Green party councillor and part of the Brighton Living Rent Campaign, said: “We need to go back to rent controls and security in Britain.”
The Guardian (12/01/2016)
15th January 2016
A government scheme offering homebuyers in London loans of up to £240,000 to help them buy new-build properties will go live on 1 February. The extension of Help to Buy London, which was announced in the chancellor’s autumn statement, will be available to buyers of new properties in Greater London costing up to £600,000. As under the existing scheme, borrowers will need to be able to raise a deposit of at least 5%, and to qualify for a normal mortgage. They will also have to show that they can afford interest payments on the government loan when the five-year interest-free period ends.
The Guardian (12/01/2016)
15th January 2016
Home loans advanced to UK buy-to-let investors in November leapt 35% from a year earlier, ahead of key tax changes. The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the rise took the number of buy-to-let loans to 23,300, although this was down 6% compared with October. Landlords in England and Wales will have to pay a 3% surcharge on each stamp duty band from April, and in addition, changes being brought in over the next few years will alter some relevant tax breaks available. "Landlords may be disgruntled by the double whammy of tax changes and the impending hike on stamp duty, but they can't complain about some of the cheapest buy-to-let rates ever," said Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients. The figures also revealed that £4.2bn of home loans were advanced to first-time buyers in November, a 14% rise on the same period a year earlier. Paul Smee, director-general of the CML, said: "As expected, mortgage lending activity eased back as the normal dip in the winter months began. There was still growth across all lending types in November compared to the year earlier, suggesting continued improvement."
BBC News (15/01/2016) The Times (15/01/2016)
8th January 2016
Housing industry research consultancy Molior London says developers in the capital sold more than twice as many two-bedroom apartments costing between £650,000 and £1m as cheaper homes priced at about £300,000 last year. Figures show that over 5,300 homes valued at between £1,000 and £1,499 per sq ft, while 2,000 properties were sold at values of less than £400 per sq ft. Shadow housing minister John Healey said: “For young people and families on ordinary incomes, these figures will make infuriating reading,” adding that “in many areas of the country, house prices have become completely detached from local incomes”.
The Guardian (02/01/2016)