Docklands News

Leaside Lock delivers ‘luxury living without the hefty price tag’
Guinness Homes has unveiled The Signature Collection at Leaside Lock, a new collection of three-bedroom
shared ownership apartments. The major new development will ultimately comprise 965 homes and is already a new focal point for the area. Creating a lively new community-focused neighbourhood, a broad range of amenities are planned on site, including a café, a gym, a convenience store and co-working space. Stratford and the Olympic Park can be reached by walking East along the towpath where residents can find stretches of outdoor space alongside the world-famous London Aquatics Centre and Westfield Stratford.

Bdaily (26/09/2023)  

Brokers believe that lenders are likely to drop mortgage rates further after the Bank of England opted not to increase interest rates. Nick Mendes, mortgage technical manager at John Charcol, said: “I would not be surprised to see rates of 4.5% for five-year fixes in October,” while David Hollingworth of L&C added: “We’ve already seen improvements in fixed rates and that looks set to continue or even accelerate in light of improved inflation figures and a hold in interest rates.” Aaron Strutt from Trinity Financial expects more lenders to lower their fixed mortgage deals in the coming weeks, commenting: "Mortgage rates need to be closer to 4% to bring more confidence back to the market.” The UK's biggest building society, Nationwide, has reduced rates by up to 0.31 percentage points, with TSB and NatWest also nudging down the cost of their new fixed rate mortgages. 

BBC News (23/09/2023)   The I (23/09/2023)  

Halving stamp duty on property purchases, both residential and commercial, has been suggested by a think-tank as a way to promote economic change and remove barriers to job moves. The Resolution Foundation's Ready for Change report highlights low productivity as the main economic problem in Britain and recommends reducing transaction taxes, reforming VAT thresholds, and supporting job mobility. The report argues that stamp duty slows down the rate at which people move houses, discouraging job moves and geographic reallocation. 

The I (25/09/2023)  

Figures from the Home Builders Federation show 110,598 homes were completed in the first half of 2023, marking an 11% decline on 2022 and a 12% fall compared to pre-pandemic levels. The number of new homes receiving planning permission in the three months to June was down 20%, year-on-year. Reflecting on the data, Rico Wojtulewicz of the National Federation of Builders said: “If things continue, we could see up to 50,000 fewer homes being completed over the next 12 months.” He added: “The Government's plan to stop mandatory minimum housing targets, and higher interest rates have slowed housing sales,” going on to describe this as “a perfect storm.”

Daily Mail (25/09/2023)  

Greenwich Council has taken what it describes as an "unprecedented" step in planning enforcement, ordering that a two-block 23-storey complex of 204 build-to-rent flats be demolished after planning enforcement officers identified 26 significant deviations from the scheme's original planning permission. The Mast Quay Phase II scheme was developed by Comer Homes Group, which is also acting as landlord. Among the deviations identified included "non-accessible" accessible apartments with steps to their balconies, an unbuilt underground car park, and no roof gardens or children's play areas. Cllr Aidan Smith described the development as a "mutant development that is a blight on the landscape". The developer has 28 days to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. 

BBC News (27/09/2023)   The Daily Telegraph (28/09/2023)   The Guardian (28/09/2023)   The Times (28/09/2023)  

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that house prices in July were only 0.6% higher than the previous year, down from a 1.9% increase in June. This is the weakest reading since September 2012. The average UK house price in July was £290,000, £2,000 more than the previous year but £2,000 below the record set in November. The ONS data shows that prices are falling fastest in Wales, with house values 0.1% lower in July than a year earlier, while annual price growth in Scotland also slowed to 0.1%. Meanwhile in England, prices increased by 0.6% in the 12 months to July, with London being the weakest-performing regional market. However, it has been overtaken by the southwest, where prices fell 1%. Gabriella Dickens, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Some potential buyers might be emboldened by the recovery in their real incomes in the second half of the year, as wages rise more quickly than prices. But consumers' confidence is still very weak by past standards and expectations of further house price falls remain entrenched." 

The Independent (20/09/2023)   The Times (20/09/2023)