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The £8bn regeneration of the iconic Battersea Power Station is helping thrust the area back into the spotlight

Battersea is set to become the most sought after address in London. It is one of the capital’s biggest regeneration zones, initiated by Boris Johnson’s decision to approve the transformation of the famous Battersea Power Station. The move is part of the Mayor of London’s “2020 vision”, in which he is calling for “urgent and bold” action to deliver an additional 400,000 new homes in the capital in the next seven years.

A Malaysian company bought the site in 2012 for a reported £8bn. It enlisted Uruguayan architect Rafael Vindy to transform the derelict spot into a multi-use complex offering 16,000 new homes along with public parks and modern promenades. The residential limb of the development, called Circus West, is comprised of a broad selection of apartment types ranging from studios priced at £338,000 to penthouse suites for £6m.

The new 450-acre neighbourhood will not open until 2016, but in January buyers and investors queued in the bitterly cold weather to get in early in what looks set to be the top residential site in London. Foreign investors have already bought 824 of the 866 apartments.

The redevelopment is special for many reasons. Leading experts predict it will be the last time we see the creation of a completely new district where none had existed before and the changes also mark a second coming for Battersea. The area was first a fashionable address back in the 90s but quickly became overshadowed by its affluent neighbours and later, the flourishing creative scene in east London. The redevelopment of the power station has helped thrust Battersea back into the spotlight.

The American government’s announcement in 2008 that it will move its embassy to the area is expected to result in more hotels popping up to cater for the surge in international visitors. Other embassies are expected to follow suit.

Battersea has also resurrected its creative credentials. The Royal College of Art, once situated in Kensington, has relocated to Battersea Bridge Road and Vivienne Westwood, Victoria Beckham, Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment and architects Foster & Partners all have offices there.

Battersea doesn’t have an underground station, which has long been a deal breaker for those who had previously considered buying there, but an extension of the Northern Line will help unlock its full potential. The station will be located outside both Battersea Power Station and on Wandsworth Road. It has been made possible by an extension from Kennington and is set to open in 2020.

The stretch of land along the Thames has changed beyond recognition. Much of the unused industrial land has turned into a hotspot for modern, luxury apartments. Already we’ve seen waterside developments like Albion Riverside, designed by Norman Foster, set up there, along with The Tower further down the river. But there’s more to Battersea’s residential offering than Circus West and the riverside developments.

The interest in those developments has had a ripple effect, as more and more buyers have began looking outwards to the settled communities and its traditional Victorian terraces. Little India and “Nappy Valley”, the area between Wandsworth and Clapham, have become a nestling ground for affluent families due to the large period homes and well performing schools. These areas have also proved popular with City workers with families who want to be far enough from the office to switch off but close enough to allow for an easy commute.

For those after a middle ground between the new and old, Crest Nicholson has launched Shaftesbury Gate, a development comprised of new-build homes designed to complement the traditional Victorian and Edwardian mansion blocks in the neighbourhood. Located in the highly coveted Shaftesbury Estate Conservation Area, the site offers just one and two bedroom apartments; two and three-bedroom duplexes; and four-bedroom townhouses. All are equipped with the modern appliances that you would expect from a new-build but the intimate setting is designed to be an antidote to impersonal apartment blocks.

“Increasingly in London, newly built properties are being sold to overseas buyers as an investment, however, our developments are specifically designed to appeal to the local market in the areas in which we build,” says Crest Nicholson London managing director, Trevor Selwyn. “As a result, we sell predominately to local owner occupiers, meaning developments like Shaftesbury Gate will become real communities with long-term residents as opposed to transient communities of shorter term tenants, as is often the case in larger developments.”

Experts predict the cost per square foot to reach £580, which is still considerably less than Chelsea across the river, where the cost per square foot is £1,500. As a result, Battersea has seen an influx of people who have been priced out of Chelsea and Kensington.

If you’re interested in moving there, now is the perfect time to buy. Battersea has always been a great spot for quality boutiques and excellent independent eateries but that is set to expand, as many restaurant chains and shops are planning to move there to cater for the thousands of new residents.

It’s also the right time for investors to buy. Knight Frank predicts the value of properties to increase by 140 per cent and since the news of the regeneration was announced in 2007, prices have already increased by 15.5 per cent for houses and 9.7 per cent for flats, bucking the depreciation in value experienced in some other London postcodes.

UK HOUSE prices soared to record levels in July, according to online property portal Rightmove.

The average price rose 0.3 per cent month-on-month and 4.8 per cent year-on-year to £253,658.

This is the seventh consecutive monthly rise, the report said.

Prices in London rose 12 per cent to an average of £515,379.

“The market is currently benefiting from the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ where incremental improvements across a range of key market drivers compound to slowly but surely build momentum,” said Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst.

RIGHTMOVE has doubled its 2013 forecast for house price growth to four per cent after seven consecutive months of gains.

Year-on-year price increases for newly marketed properties rose to 4.8 per cent in July – up £11,561 on this time last year.

Prices rose 0.3 per cent – an average of £860 – since last month, and Rightmove said an “aggregation of marginal gains” had fuelled its optimism.

The property website said there were signs of a broader-based recovery, with all regions’ prices up year-on-year for the first time in nearly three years.

Consumer confidence has also increased. The number of people expecting average prices to be higher in 12 months has doubled from 31 per cent a year ago to 62 per cent now.

Rightmove said it has dealt with five per cent more transactions in the year to date. Meanwhile email enquiries to agents and developers are up 18 per cent on 2012, the number of new sellers has risen by five per cent, mortgage approvals are up by six per cent and it said surveyors are “struggling to cope” with demand.

Source: City AM

LONDON’S Silicon Roundabout was home to more start-ups than any other area in the country during the year to March, new figures show.

The postcode EC1V – a hotspot for technology firms –  saw 15,720 start-ups created over the 12-month period, outstripping some of London’s international financial centres by a considerable distance, according to a survey by UHY Hacker Young.

HOUSE price inflation in London is more than four times as high as in the rest of the UK outside the south east, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released yesterday.

Prices in London rose by six per cent in the twelve months to April this year, while the UK outside of the south east and London only ticked up by 1.4 per cent, behind consumer price inflation.

Prices rises were below average or actually falling in the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wales, however, saw a large rise of 6.2 per cent.

There was a change in the makeup of buyers, with a 4.7 per cent increase in the number of people purchasing property for the first time, after a 1.3 per cent increase in March.

The rise in April is the highest in recent years, during which the proportion of sales involving people acquiring their first house has declined.

The number of existing owners who bought a house over the year rose by 1.9 per cent.

Despite the rise in purchases by people who own no other properties, first time buyers now need an extra £8,400 to secure a property.

“Today’s inflation-busting price increases mean first-time buyers now have an even greater mountain to climb to realise their dreams of owning their home,” said Duncan Stott of the campaign group Priced Out.

In the most recent budget, chancellor George Osborne announced a scheme of mortgage guarantees, called Help to Buy. But some analysts say the policy runs the risk of inflating house prices rather than assisting buyers.

A HONG Kong hotel group is poised to make its first foray into the UK after agreeing to buy a half stake in a site on Hyde Park Corner for £132.5m

Peninsula Hotels said yesterday it will buy Derwent London’s 50 per cent interest in 1-5 Grosvenor Place, forming a new joint venture with the freeholder Grosvenor.

The pair plan to develop the 1960s Belgravia office block, which spans 1.5 acres, into a luxury hotel and residential scheme.

Derwent, which has owned the building for almost 20 years, sold half of its share and formed a joint venture with Grosvenor last year, to create a mixed-use luxury scheme.

Chief executive John Burns said Derwent decided to sell out after it became clear the building was better suited to a hotel project.

“We didn’t wish to be in the hotel business and so we took the opportunity to realise profits now,” he told City A.M.

Once the deal is completed, Derwent will have pocketed nearly £200m of proceeds from the scheme since the start of 2012. Peninsula has nine hotels in Asia and the US and is due to open its first European venture in Paris this year.

THERE’S no doubt that foreign buyers are on the hunt for property in London. Yesterday’s three deals alone – Wanda’s Nine Elms investment, Derwent’s sale of its Grosvenor Place stake to Hong Kong hotel giant Peninsula and UBS completing the sale of its Broadgate site to Malaysian investors – are worth a total of almost £900m, much of it a welcome boost for UK developers who are pouring the proceeds back into local projects. The global rush to invest and build in London – particularly from Asia and the Middle East – is a fantastic boost for the capital. Wanda’s new apartment block will bring 267 new flats (and 51 affordable homes) to the city, while Peninsula will make brilliant use of its prime Belgravia site to redevelop the current 1960s office block into a much-needed luxury hotel for business travellers and tourists.

All this planned construction is great, but there’s one bump in the road that’s stopping this investment boom from really taking off – planning permission.

An application to build the UK’s tallest residential tower in Canary Wharf was deferred earlier this week by Tower Hamlets council, concerned over the height of the building. There’s plenty of prime space up for grabs in London. Let’s not put off developers – foreign or domestic – by making life unnecessarily difficult.