Tag Archives: house
Major new development announced for London’s Canary Wharf
Plans to create a new waterside community on the eastern edge of Canary Wharf in London with up to 3,610 homes and more than 17,000 jobs have been approved by the Mayor of London. Major new development announced for London’s Canary Wharf Plans to create a new waterside community on the eastern edge of Canary Wharf in London with up to 3,610 homes and more than 17,000 jobs have been approved by the Mayor of London. It is the latest in a series of new developments that Mayor Boris Johnson hopes will help tackle the severe shortage of homes in the capital city, especially affordable homes. The new development, on land formerly known as Wood Wharf, will transform a vast 13.6 hectare site that has been semi derelict and underused for decades. In addition to new housing, including affordable housing options, the scheme will include a variety of business and retail units, hotel, leisure facilities, a new primary school and a doctor's surgery. There will also be up to 35,000 square meters of retail floor space, a community centre and a network of parks and public squares and the centrepiece will be a 57 storey cylindrical residential skyscraper facing the waters of South Dock, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects behind the Tate Modern and the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing. Developer Canary Wharf Group will also be contributing in excess of £60 million towards Crossrail and an additional £27.5 million for other infrastructure needs. This will include over £10 million for local transport improvements, some of which will be used to improve the nearby Preston's Road roundabout. At least 25% of the new homes will be affordable but a review mechanism has been put in place that could see the number of affordable homes rise to 40% and 80% of the affordable homes will be affordable rent and the remainder will be intermediate housing. ‘This vast development will transform a currently derelict brownfield site beyond all comprehension into a thriving new community with thousands of new homes and jobs. This is exactly the kind of scheme that we need to accommodate London's booming population that is set to break through the nine million mark within the next decade,’ said Johnson. According to Sir George Iacobescu, chairman and chief executive officer of Canary Wharf, the new development will reinforce Canary Wharf's position into the future as one of the most exciting and vibrant places to live and work in London. ‘The new phase of Canary Wharf will include up to 3,610 new homes, and 1.9m square feet of office buildings designed to accommodate the fast growing technology media and telecoms sector as well as financial and professional services firms,’ he explained. ‘It will offer high street retail units to complement Canary Wharf's existing retail offer, as well as affordable housing on site. It will also include substantial new green parks and dockside walks, a library, a large GP surgery, a school for 420 children, a community sports hall… Continue reading
UK house prices predicted to rise by 6% in first quarter of 2015
UK house prices are predicted to rise by up to 6% in the first quarter of 2015 but then start slowing as the May general election approaches, according to one forecast. Prices could even start to drop by around 2% in the last half of the year and it could be a worse scenario if the current opposition Labour party wins, says the prediction report from low cost online estate agents Hatched. Hatched also predicts growth to continue at somewhere around 4% to 5% in 2015, whilst warning home owners to be prepared for a rocky spell around April, May and June, with the uncertainty that a general election inevitably brings. According to Adam Day, the firm’s managing director, a Labour victory in May could potentially have a hugely disruptive effect on the property market as the party is known for surprising voters with unexpected measures and excessive red tape. He pointed out that the last Labour win led to the introduction of Home Information Packs which then had to be scrapped. ‘The way they were introduced wasn't thought through. The government announced the specific date that HIPs were to become a legal requirement, which led to hundreds of thousands of home owners rushing to put their house on the market in an attempt to avoid the cost and bureaucracy associated with their production,’ he explained. ‘It was this slapdash strategy, which consequently led to an oversupply of properties that brought on the beginnings of the crash in 2008,’ he added. Interest rates are also expected to rise in 2015, although for many home owners it will not have a huge impact. But it is likely to affect first time buyers who tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on home costs. However, Hatched expects interest rate rises to be a contributor to the slowdown for the housing market in the final half of the year. Day also expects there to be a significant reduction in high street agents. ‘Many agents will have over staffed themselves this year because it has been so busy, so when the property market does begin to slow in the middle of the year, they will have over extended themselves,’ he suggested. He believes that 2015 will see online estate agencies continue to prosper and traditional agents who decide to join the online revolution and thus respond to customer demand by driving efficiencies with the aim of lowering their fees, should also enjoy success and stand out in a market which is likely to get tougher as the year progresses. Continue reading
House developers looking outside London for land
Over the last six months, there has been a shift in direction of the residential development land market in the UK and urban locations with London links are increasingly being sought by developers, new research suggests. Developers are looking for opportunities beyond London as the capital city has seen much slower growth in land prices over the six months to September than the previous half year, according to the research from real estate firm Savills. Values for residential land in London rose by 4.1% from the first quarter to the third quarter of this year compared to 15.2% in the six months to March 2014. The slower increase in the value of residential land follows the cooling housing market in the capital over the same period. Sites with good transport links across all zones however are still highly sought after. The main flow of this movement is the south western corridor from London out to commuter hotspots, Guildford, Woking and Farnborough, according to the report. London based developers as well as those from other regions are interested in investing in the area. Values for urban land in Guildford and Woking are amongst the highest outside London, but despite this they have seen steady growth of 2.4% over the last quarter and 5.5% in the last year. Other cities have seen the influence of developers investing in land from London. An example is Manchester which two years ago only saw regional interest. Development land in Manchester has seen growth for the second quarter in a row after six years of stagnation. Many parties are now interested in land in and around the city although access to finance remains a potential barrier to delivery of homes. Urban land has seen stronger growth in the last quarter having previously lagged behind the growth seen for green field development land since the downturn. Along with Manchester, places in the Midlands, such as Northampton, Nottingham, Leicester and Derby, have stood out as having seen strong growth in urban values, into double digit percentage figures in some cases, indicating that the market has picked up again. Further south, Cambridge has seen increased growth in urban land values along with a large volume of development in recent years. The report points out that here development is supported by a strong and growing local economy, a significant London commuter base and its vibrant historic centre. Construction on urban extensions in Cambridge began at the end of 2011, and an additional 5,000 units will be built in and around the city in the next five years. Sales rates here have been the highest in the country outside London, indicating a strong demand for property. However, not all of the UK is seeing land value increase and in many places land values have remained stable, particularly where there has been high supply of consented land. One example is Telford, where there has been a high supply of sites controlled by the HCA. Continue reading
