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22nd May 2015
UK house prices accelerated with a 9.6% increase in the year to the end of March, according to the Office for National Statistics. The annual rate of increase accelerated from 7.4% a month earlier, despite consumer prices in general being flat. A lack of homes on the market has been cited as a key factor behind the rise, at a time when activity was expected to have been curtailed by the election campaign. The ONS said that the cost of the average UK home in March was £273,000, and £498,000 in London.
BBC News (19/05/2015)
22nd May 2015
Tessa Jowell says the Mayor of London should take a direct role in building homes in the capital. After confirming her intention to run for the post, the former Olympics minister said she would set up “Homes for Londoners” (HfL) if elected - a city agency on a par with Transport for London (TfL). The agency would build homes using public sector land and would be overseen by a dedicated Housing Commissioner appointed by the Mayor. “It’s not enough for the Mayor to exhort others to build homes. We’ve tried that - it hasn’t worked,” she said.
Financial Times (19/05/2015)
15th May 2015
A new housing development at Blackwall, on the Thames waterfront is due to be ready by the end of the year, and is being marketed as ideal for keen cyclists. The Jessops tower block scheme, part of Ballymore’s New Providence Wharf development, features uniquely low-cost housing just a stone’s throw from Canary Wharf, and sits on top of the Cycle Highway, which passes through Poplar and Limehouse to the City and beyond. The scheme is being aimed at first-time buyers earning below £71,000 a year, and offers the option for shared ownership. Prices start at £93,688 for a 25% share of a one-bedroom flat, based on a full market-value of £374,750.
East London Advertiser (14/05/2015)
15th May 2015
According to a new report from Rentify, children born this year could pay up to £70,000 in rent a year in London by the time they reach 18. The survey calculates that should the rental market continue rising at its rate of 7.5% a year, rent in London could rise from an average of £1,413 a month to £6,135 a month.
The Daily Telegraph (14/05/2015)
15th May 2015
New figures suggest that forecasts for population and jobs growth in London made by Mayor Boris Johnson were too cautious and that the average cost of a home in London is on course to reach £1m by 2030 as house building struggles to keep pace with a rapidly rising population. Oxford Economics has warned that house prices in the city could more than double over the next 15 years if its housing supply issue is not solved while its population continues to increase and that affordability problems in the capital would intensify even further if the expected increase in demand for housing coincided with a widening of the gap between rich and poor.
The Times (15/05/2015)
15th May 2015
The latest figures from Experian's Property Index show that in the first three months of the year the number of homes that came on to the market for sale hit their highest level since the start of 2010, totalling 229,939.
The Independent (15/05/2015)