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31st July 2015
The leader of Westminster City Council, Philippa Roe, has warned that the extended right-to-buy scheme could strip the capital of “huge swathes of social housing”. Ms Roe said: “What we will see is a reduction in the number of social housing units in London and more units built outside. But the crisis in housing is inside London. So it is absolutely vital that the proceeds of right-to-buy from London are kept in London.”
Evening Standard
31st July 2015
Lloyds Bank research reveals that homes an hour from London are on average £450,000 cheaper than equivalent properties in the capital. This is at odds with the situation in the rest of the country; in Manchester, for example, a property 40 minutes away is more expensive than in the city itself. With the average cost of a yearly rail ticket from London commuter towns costing £4,944, a commuter would need to commute for 91 years before compensating for the difference in average house prices.
31st July 2015
Figures from SpareRoom.co.uk show that for renters on the London Living Wage, not a single London postcode can be classed as affordable.
The Independent
24th July 2015
The Independent looks at how the fears over the general election and a higher stamp duty bill have triggered the rise of the super-rich renter, prepared to fork out £20,000 per month for a luxury London home. It says that one leading estate agent a 182% surge in the numbers of applicants willing to pay £5,000 a week for luxury rentals in the three months to June 30. The paper says that Canary Wharf, Bishops Avenue, and Mayfair are all locations favoured by super-rich renters, noting that at the moment one Canary Wharf penthouse is up for rent at £20,584 a month.
The Independent
24th July 2015
A PwC report has found over half of 20 to 39-year-olds will be renting property from private landlords rather than living in their own homes a decade from now. It predicts that by 2025, 7.2m households will be in rented accommodation, compared with 5.4m today and just 2.3m in 2001. It notes that owner occupation will be at 60%, down from the 70% seen before the financial crisis. PwC predicts property values will rise 5% this year and average prices could hit £360,000 by 2020, up from the current average of £279,000. One property expert notes the cost of buying was a bigger barrier to ownership than the cost of owning, saying: “with low mortgage rates, annual housing costs are more affordable than for those in the rented tenures. Instead, with house prices still at many multiples of income and mortgage lending at high loan-to-values limited and expensive, it is the cost of raising a deposit that prevents many from buying a home."
The Times The Daily Telegraph The Guardian
24th July 2015
Simon Jenkins in the Evening Standard looks at the number of skyscrapers that are reshaping the London skyline, saying that the City of London Corporation has gone against its policy of protecting it. He says the Shard was meant to be a one off but has in fact been a precedent, with the Heron Tower and Walkie Talkie building following and new plans for the site at 22 Bishopsgate set to see a building only 30m short of the Shard’s 300m. He says London has no plan in place to design, cluster or shape its skyline.
Evening Standard, Page: 14