Housing Market View From London
May 11, 2014
With properties in Hackney and Walthamstow, I am slightly aghast at the stratospheric shift in prices in both of these ‘hotspots’ over the past few months. This was confirmed in April by the Nationwide house price index for the first quarter of 2014 showing annual prices had increased 23% and 21% in the boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest, but other boroughs like Brent and Lambeth topped this with 31% and 30% rises. Meanwhile my one bedroom flat in Nottinghamshire is still […]
I bought at auction in early September this year and I paid a few thousand more than I wanted to. I was a bit irked, but I wanted a project, was ready to buy and decided that the brief period we’ve had since 2009 when you could get a bargain in some parts of London was well and truly over. Back in September, I bid on Lot 1 and unusually sat on the front row because I wanted to stay focus and didn’t […]
If you’ve spent any time in auction rooms recently – or spoken to agents – you’ll know that the market is becoming quite lively. There are a number of hotspots in my home territory, London, where pent up demand is being frustrated by lack of supply in many neighbourhoods. It has become a vendor’s market and as more people are encouraged to sell, we are likely to see a further increase in activity in the near future. Don’t just take my word for it: last […]
There has been a worrying increase in calls for rent controls recently. The Labour Party Private Housing Policy Review in December 2012 calls for annual indexation of rent increases once the initial rent has been set. More worryingly, MPs such as Jeremy Corbyn and this week David Lammy seem to be calling for a return to something akin to 1970s housing policy. Lammy’s comments were in response to the introduction of Universal Credit in four London boroughs on 15 April 2013 where the total welfare […]
I chair the regular NLA London Regional seminar sponsored by Edmund Cude at the Institute of Directors. This month we were looking at the un-joined-up housing policy of the current government, proposals from shadow housing minister Jack Dromey MP, welfare reform impacts in Hackney presented by Jennifer Wynter and realistic strategies for dealing with rogue landlords. Mira Bar-Hillel from the Evening Standard joined us for the panel discussion to stir things up.