London apartment builder Telford Homes  has struck a deal to progress the first phase in the redevelopment of Poplar Business Park in East London.

It lifts Telford Homes’ development pipeline to over £1bn future revenue for the first time in the group’s history.

The three-phase scheme will create a total of 392 new homes in a location only 800m from Canary Wharf and just to the North of the new Crossrail station.

Telford Homes will pay land-owner Workspace £16.3m for the first phase, which will be developed with 120 open market homes, 50 affordable homes, and 8,000sq ft of light industrial space for Workspace.

The development rises to 22 storeys with construction expected to be completed in 2018.

Jon Di-Stefano, Chief Executive of Telford Homes, said: “We are delighted to partner with Workspace on this fantastic opportunity.

“For the group’s development pipeline to be in excess of £1bn is an exceptional milestone and, along with a strong forward sold position, Telford Homes is in an excellent position to deliver substantial growth over the next few years.”

Developer Landmark Estates has made its first foray into the London market. The firm, which has been responsible for a slew of projects along the south coast over the last fifteen years, has just snapped up a site in Battersea with plans for a new £8m resi scheme.

Wrenbridge and Legal & General Property have launched their latest development in Westminster; the transformation of an old post office building into a nineteen-unit scheme.

Source: Prime Resi

There’s no sign of a reversal in fortunes for London’s tumbling super-prime sales market, according to some sterling new research by Carter Jonas. Here’s the findings in a nutshell…

Sales

• Despite a significant cooling in some PCL markets throughout 2013 and the early part of 2014, Q2 2014 witnessed a return to strong capital value appreciation for most PCL areas.
• Relatively strong demand from domestic buyers boosted by a spring market led to this surprise upturn.
• Knightsbridge reinforced this trend, where a flat previous 18 months have been left behind with a 5.7% capital value growth witnessed in H1 2014.
• The one exception to the growth witnessed in H1 2014 is the Super Prime market where quarterly capital values have been falling since spring 2013 with no sign of a trend reversal.
• Our data showed average falls of 11% in this market from June 2013 to June 2014.
• Wandsworth and Fulham have now matched and exceeded the more established PCL markets of Holland Park and prime W2.
• Due to a prolonged period of stagnation, capital value growth levels in Knightsbridge have been matched by the Mayfair and Marylebone markets, with all three markets recording a ten year capital value growth of between 160-180%.
• Due to falling buyer enquiries across most markets, we expect capital value growth rates in PCL to slow significantly during H2 2014.
• We also expect Outer Prime growth rates to cool during this period, albeit not to the same degree as core PCL.

Lettings

• Stock levels of rental product remained high within most Prime and Outer Prime London markets, with demand
  relatively static due to flat levels of recruitment in the City.
• Poorer quality stock has tended to suffer, experiencing longer voids and sharper price reductions.
• Rental values in the 12 months to June 2014 remained relatively flat with overall PCL rents dropping just over 1%.
• In the outer core market, a fractional fall of -0.1% was recorded in Wandsworth and an increase of 2.9% was recorded in Fulham.
• Although volatile, the Knightsbridge and Mayfair markets have produced the strongest rental growth since 2006.
• Marylebone has proved the most stable market with its consistency and continuing out-performance of PCL rents as a whole, outstripping that of PCL as a whole for seven out of the last eight years.

Note: Data from July 2014

Buying a square metre of Kensington and Chelsea property now costs roughly the same as a new entry-level Ford Fiesta.

With one square metre costing £10,854, the area is the most expensive local authority in the country to live in. According to data from Halifax, average house prices in this and six other London boroughs have shot up by more than 50 per cent per square metre since 2009.

But while every borough in London has seen an increase, many other areas are still well below the levels they were at five years ago.

The map shows how prices have changed between 2009 and 2014, with the local authorities shown in blue recording price decreases. Data for the regions in grey was not provided.

Scotland and Wales in particular are struggling to see a recovery in their housing markets, with 26 of 30 local authorities in Scotland and 15 of 22 in Wales below 2009 levels.

London, however, is a different story. Every borough in the capital has seen an increase in its price per square metre over the same period.

It is in some of the richest boroughs in 2009 that have seen the greatest percentage increases. These areas are clustered around the centre, while those authorities which have seen relatively modest increases are towards the periphery.

The figures show that Lambeth was the region to record the highest increase in price in the last five years, with a jump from £3,180 to £5,180 per square metre, a rise of 61 per cent.

The lowest percentage increase was in Barking and Dagenham, which saw a 16.5 per cent rise; still far higher than the median national change of four per cent. In total, seven areas in London, which include Lambeth, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, Harringey and Hackney, have seen prices leap by more than 50 per cent per square metre.

Other districts such as Camden, Islington and Southwark aren’t far behind, with increases close to 50 per cent.

Highest and lowest prices

Every one of the 10 local authorities with the highest price per square metre was in London. The cheapest 10 were all outside the capital, in Scotland, Wales and the north of England.

It is in some of the richest boroughs in 2009 that have seen the greatest percentage increases. These areas are clustered around the centre, while those authorities which have seen relatively modest increases are towards the periphery.

The figures show that Lambeth was the region to record the highest increase in price in the last five years, with a jump from £3,180 to £5,180 per square metre, a rise of 61 per cent.

The lowest percentage increase was in Barking and Dagenham, which saw a 16.5 per cent rise; still far higher than the median national change of four per cent. In total, seven areas in London, which include Lambeth, Kensington and Chelsea, Lewisham, Harringey and Hackney, have seen prices leap by more than 50 per cent per square metre.

Other districts such as Camden, Islington and Southwark aren’t far behind, with increases close to 50 per cent.

There has been recent speculation that the housing market may be cooling in the capital as Mortgage Market Review (MMR) rules take effect and talk grows of the possibility of interest rate hikes by the Bank of England.

Source: City AM

London property developer British Land said today it’s just sold the most expensive Mayfair home ever – a massive 5,000 sq ft penthouse on Clarges Street in Mayfair, which sold for “materially above” the previous record of £5,000 per sq ft (which, fact fans, was set by a property on Mayfair’s Mount Street).

The company said it had sold another 18 apartments at the 10-storey development at an average of £4,750sq ft. When it’s complete in 2017, the scheme will contain 34 flats of between one and five bedrooms each, alongside 47,800 sq ft of office space.

Lucky residents will have access to a “wellness spa”, a swimming pool and even their own cinema room. According to British Land head of offices Tim Roberts, at least half the building’s new residents – who were specifically targeted – are “British-based”, while half are foreign, predominantly Indian.

The Clarges Estate in its original splendour (Source: Google)

Formerly the headquarters of the Kennel Club, British Land bought the Clarges Estate for £129.6m in 2012 – agreeing to rehome the Kennel Club was one of the conditions of its planning permission.

First-time buyers in England under the age of 40 could buy a house at 20% below the market rate if the Conservatives are re-elected, David Cameron has pledged.

The Conservative leader said a future government led by him would build 100,000 new homes for such people.

They would be built on brownfield land already identified for development and exempt from some taxes, he said.

He was speaking as the party prepares for its annual conference this weekend.

Conservative politicians and activists will gather in Birmingham from Sunday for what is the final conference before next May’s general election.

No flipping

Unveiling the pledge – an extension of the Help to Buy mortgage scheme – Mr Cameron said the Conservatives wanted more young people to “achieve the dream” of owning their own home.

“I want young people who work hard, who do the right thing, to be able to buy a home of their own. So these starter homes will be sold at 20% less than the market value.

“They can’t be bought by foreigners, they can’t be bought by buy-to-let landlords, they can’t be flipped round in a quick sale. They can only be bought by hard working people under the age of 40.”

The starter homes plan would apply only to England, whereas Help to Buy is UK-wide.

That scheme entails the government offering a 20% equity loan to buyers of new-build properties.

Mixed communities

Shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds said Mr Cameron had presided over the lowest level of house building in peacetime since the 1920s.

“After four and a half years he now tells us that he is going to deliver for first-time buyers but under his government a record one in four young people are living at home with their parents and young people across the country are priced out of home ownership.

“Labour will make the fundamental changes to the market which are urgently needed and will double the number of first-time buyers in the next 10 years.”

Campbell Robb, of homelessness charity Shelter, welcomed the pledge but said it was “absolutely vital” that the homes built were “genuinely affordable for young couples and families on ordinary incomes”.

“There’s a real concern that removing the requirement on developers to build affordable housing means this policy may not help those facing the greatest struggle to get a home of their own,” he said.

Grainia Long, of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said she welcomed “the focus on supply and affordability” but still had “some serious concerns”.

She said: “This smacks of building for one group of people at the expense of another.

“Social housing is critical if we are going to solve the housing crisis – there are always going to be people who can’t afford to buy and we must provide decent, affordable homes for them too.

“Equally, we’d like to see more investment in shared ownership to help people on lower incomes. If all the focus is on home ownership, we are never going to build mixed communities.”

‘Raft of taxes’

Under the new proposals, the homes would be built on brownfield land which was no longer needed for industrial or commercial use.

Savings from using such land would be passed on to the buyers, the Conservatives said.

Public sector land would also be used to deliver the pledge.

The homes would be exempt “from a raft of taxes”, Mr Cameron said, such as the community infrastructure levy and a requirement to build social housing as part of any development.

Some building regulations – including the zero carbon homes standard – would also not apply to the new units.

The zero carbon homes standard, which applies from 2016, aims to improve energy efficiency.

It requires house builders to decrease all carbon emissions from energy arising from fixed heating and lighting, hot water and other fixed building services – such as ventilation – in new homes.

Source: BBC