Tag Archives: london
Average rental prices in London reach over £1,400 a month
Rental values in London have risen by 4.67% since June 2015, with the average rental price for a property in the capital standing at £1,467 compared to £1,402 in the summer, the latest figures show. Greenwich saw the largest increase taking the average rent to £1,397 per month, according to the Rentify Property Index. The firm said that this could be due to the time of year when students are starting back at university. Other areas that experienced considerable rental uplifts include Brent, with average rents in the North West London borough growing by £201 to almost £1,500 per month. Next was Newham with an increase of £197 taking the average rent to £1,378 per calendar month, then Lewisham with an increase of £194 taking the average rent to £1,305 and Lambeth with an increase of £182 to an average rent of £1,617. Areas that saw a fall in rent included Wandsworth where the average rent fell by £33, and Kingston-upon-Thames, with the average rent in the area falling by almost £90 to £1,237. Homes in the City of London have also experienced what the firm described as an unprecedented dip in price, with the average monthly rent dropping £185 to £2,149. Although this can’t be considered a long term decline, the figures do highlight seasonality in the market, according to the report, which adds that the dip in costs could be in part attributed to the school calendar, with families moving to ensure they secure the best postcode possible for their child’s education during the summer months. The data also showed how strong rental demand is across the capital. Bexley proved to be the most popular area for property hunters with an average of 10 people viewing each home in the borough each day, whilst other outer London boroughs such as Enfield and Haringey, both seeing an average of 9.6 viewers per day, also generating huge interest. ‘High cost of rent in central London is continuing to drive people away to outer boroughs in search of affordable housing. This however means that these so called cheaper locations are seeing a remarkable rise in rent due to their popularity. They are hot on the heels with central London due to strong demand,’ said Rentify chief executive officer George Spencer. ‘Furthermore, the recent buy to let tax hike introduced by the Chancellor will further constrain supply as less people invest in property to rent, making life increasingly hard for Londoners,’ he added. Continue reading
New planning reforms in UK welcomed, but lack of resources not addressed
The British Property Federation has welcomed the majority of the changes announced in the autumn financial statement by the UK Chancellor but expressed disappointment that there was no mention of a review of planning fees. ‘While there are some really sensible suggestions in today’s announcement, the planning system still has one big problem, the lack of resources in local authority planning departments,’ said Melanie Leech, chief executive of the BPF. ‘Both the private and public sector have identified this as one of the biggest obstacles for development, and with the private sector willing to discuss how it might be able to plug the funding gap, it is frustrating that Government has not engaged on this matter,’ she added. Included in the statement was amendments to planning policy to ensure the release of unused and previously undeveloped commercial, retail and industrial land for Starter Homes, and support for the regeneration of previously developed, brownfield sites in the greenbelt, by allowing them to be developed in the same way as brownfield sites elsewhere, providing it delivers Starter Homes. It will be subject to local consultation, such as through neighbourhood plans and Leech described it as a ‘very sensible step’ and one that will put a stop to endless battles in the planning regime as well as bringing forward the Government’s intended 200,000 Starter Homes. ‘The sites that will be eligible for this will not be lush green fields, but rather disused scrap yards and car parks which happen to sit within the Green Belt, and which are calling out to be more productively used,’ she pointed out. There will also be the establishment of a new delivery test on local authorities, to ensure delivery against the number of homes set out in Local Plans. The BPF believes that Local Plans are the key to sustainable development. Leech said it will ensure that local authorities really do concentrate on growth for their area and that their local plans are focused on delivery and the practicalities of housing the population. ‘The lack of resources afflicting local authority planning departments is an issue, and if authorities can keep their local plans kept short and sharp, they will help themselves,’ she added. The changes will also see the release of public sector land with capacity for 160,000 homes representing a more than 50% increase on the government’s record in the last parliament ‘The homes that are brought forward on these sites must be serviced with sufficient infrastructure and will ideally have homes for sale and for rent, to ensure that they contribute to mixed, vibrant communities,’ said Leech. The government will bring forward proposals for a more standardised approach to viability assessments, and extend the ability to appeal against unviable section 106 agreements to 2018. It is well known that a lot of disagreement between local authorities and developers arise due to viability assessments so the move towards a standardised viability model should go a long way to… Continue reading
New generation of skilled builders needed to fulfil UK’s new housing plans
A new generation of skilled builders will be needed to fulfil the UK government’s latest pledge to build hundreds of thousands of new homes, according to industry experts. The house building industry has welcomed the announcement of a £7 billion fund to prioritise home building with 200,000 starter home with 20% discount for those aged under 40, 135,000 shared ownership home, 10,000 rent to buy homes and 8,000 specialist properties for the elderly and disabled. But the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) pointed out that already developments are being stalled or held up due to the cost of hiring skilled tradesmen and with a shortage of apprenticeships the skills problem is not about to go away. ‘Unless we see a massive uplift in apprenticeship training in our industry, there won’t be enough pairs of hands to deliver more housing on this scale. The Chancellor clearly recognises that the crisis of home ownership is inextricably linked to a crisis in house building. We therefore hope that in order to address both, the Government will do everything it can to increase house building capacity,’ said Brian Berry chief executive of the FMB. ‘SME developers will have an important role to play in delivering the smaller scale sites across the country. The last time we built in excess of 200,000 homes in one year was in the late 1980s when two thirds of all homes were built by small developers,’ he pointed out. ‘SME house builders now only build little over one quarter of all new homes which points to another serious capacity issue as we need more small house builders to enter the market and also for SME house builders to crank up their delivery of new homes in order to build the Chancellors 400,000 new affordable homes,’ he added. There was much in the Autumn Statement for the construction industry to be excited about but some of the fundamental barriers to house building and, in fact, construction of any kind, remain in place, according to Simon Craven, director at Tower8. ‘If we are to see spades in the ground, then we need to see more of skilled workers to deliver these grand schemes. Further funding for a skilled workforce is required if the construction industry is to match the potential projects that the Chancellor is so keen to encourage,’ he explained. ‘Pressure on the construction industry comes from project costs such as staffing, materials inflation and other key factors that affect delivery. The Chancellor has left many of the problems of supply side and skills to the private sector to resolve which is a potentially exciting move. But the grey area occurs where the private sector works with local authorities, planners, education and divergent goals between these parties mean that the progress required is simply not made,’ he added. 'Furthermore, we have been interested to speak with many of the firms that are looking to deliver PRS schemes in the… Continue reading
