Docklands News

Equity release lending to new customers increased 31% in 2022 compared to the year before, as £6.3bn of cash was tapped from properties. The number of equity release plans taken out over the year also increased 29% taking the total to 52,295, according to equity release broker Key. The typical customer released £106,806 of equity from the value of their home, 2% more than the £104,792 average in 2021. 

Daily Mail (30/01/2023)   Daily Telegraph (30/01/2023)  

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has called for the revival of Help to Buy as part of efforts to ignite the slowing housing market and avert a dramatic plunge in the supply of new homes. Britain's housebuilders are writing to Jeremy Hunt to ask him to reintroduce help for first-time buyers at the budget in March, as Help to Buy ends after ten years. Final purchases under Help to Buy must be completed by the end of March and the HBF said this marked the end of 25 years of "continuous government intervention" in the market in various guises. The HBF, in a submission to the Treasury ahead of the budget, will argue that "the average deposit of a first-time buyer in 2021-22 was £43,693, an amount that for many, is simply unachievable". The industry wants a "new, targeted home ownership scheme for first-time buyers".

The Sunday Times (29/01/2023)  

Developer Linkcity has been granted planning permission by the London Borough of Newham for Phase 4 of its Hallsville Quarter development masterplan in Canning Town. Phase 4 proposes a new mixed-use city block designed by architects PRP, which includes 377 purpose-built student accommodation rooms, a wide range of student amenity spaces including a first-floor garden and 7th-floor roof terrace and 487 square metres of new ground floor, flexible commercial floorspace and landscaped public realm. Ultimately, the Hallsville Quarter development will provide over 1,100 new homes, a new hotel, up to 30,000m2 of leisure, work and retail space with a new art-house style cinema, and community facilities including a new public health centre close to the Canning Town transport hub. 

Property Wire (23/01/2023)  

Knight Architects’ plans for a new bridge in Canary Wharf, east London, have been given the go ahead by Tower Hamlets council. The 70m-long footbridge crossing the South Dock will link Marsh Wall on the southern part of the Isle of Dogs financial district with Jubilee Park and Foster & Partners’ Canary Wharf tube station. It is intended to ease pressure on Wilkinson Eyre’s South Quay footbridge, which is currently the only north-south pedestrian link across the busy central part of the dock. Knight’s bridge is split into two sections either side of a single pier, with the northern side designed to lift up to allow small boats to pass underneath. Tower Hamlets’ strategic development committee said the scheme was a “high-quality and elegant design, considered appropriate to its contemporary surroundings” and would be a “…positive addition to the area and waterfront.”

Building Design (24/01/2023)  

HMRC figures reveals that UK house sales fell by 3% month-on-month in December. Analysis shows an estimated 101,920 homes were sold in December 2022, which was 1% higher than in December 2021 but 3% lower than in November 2022. During the same period year earlier, 1,049,450 house sales had taken place. The HMRC’s report said house sales had generally been stable in recent months but were slightly weaker in December. It added: “The impact of higher mortgages rates is only beginning to appear now because transactions data is based upon date of completion, and it typically takes between two to four months for a house sale to complete. Many buyers are still looking to proceed with their purchase in order to take advantage of pre-agreed mortgages with lower rates. The levels of current monthly property transactions are higher than late 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Daily Mail (24/01/2023)   The Independent (24/01/2023)  

New data reveals that the number of buyers pulling out of property sales and collapsed chains has increased sharply over the past three months. Analysis by TwentyCi, a property data company, found that the share of agreed sales collapsing before completion jumped to a high of 25.4% in November, up from 23% in October and 21% in September. This compares with a rate of 22% in November 2021, and 23% in the same month in 2019. In the week after the mini-Budget, the number of housing sales that fell through rose to around 7,900, from 5,890 previously, and then increased to 8,500 in each of the following two weeks. 

The Daily Telegraph (23/01/2023)