Interiors: The story of a Chinese twenty-something who created a best of British flat in Shanghai October 5, 2018 Anyone casting an eye around this spacious contemporary apartment would find its elegance reassuringly familiar. English joinery, heritage brands, bespoke handcrafted furniture – you could be visiting One Hyde Park. But look outside the 18th-floor panoramic windows and it’s not the sweeping green of central London you see, but the majestic Huangpu river, snaking through [...]
Opinion: Brokenshire’s £1bn plan to get SME developers to build more houses won’t work if the economy is unstable October 5, 2018 While it may seem as if all of our politicians are spending most of their time fretting over Brexit, James Brokenshire, the latest secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, recently announced an initiative to encourage more small and medium-sized (SME) developers into the market. The Government will be partnering with Barclays to [...]
Focus On Blackheath: New development is thin on the ground in this quintessential London village October 5, 2018 T here’s a lot of development going on in South East London, but you won’t find it in Blackheath. This little enclave is on the borders of Greenwich, Kidbrooke and Lewisham, which are all undergoing Joan Rivers-level facelifts in the next few years, but there’s nothing going on in Blackheath by comparison. Housebuilding behemoth Berkeley [...]
New homes: Our pick of the new builds going on sale in London this weekend October 5, 2018 11 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Hampstead From £695,000 Live in a Victorian mansion designed in the Arts and Crafts style that has been converted into 12 apartments with two new build townhouses at the back. Developer Godfrey London has re-introduced period features, along with heritage timber wall-panelling and limestone fireplaces. Call joint agents Goldschmidt & Howland (020 [...]
Focus On St John’s Wood: Why the genteel life on offer in this north west London village has endured for over a hundred years October 5, 2018 The rapid gentrification of the grottier parts of London has dominated the capital’s housing chat over the last few years. Everyone loves a rags to riches story, but as boring as it sounds, there are some parts of London that have always been, well, lovely. St John’s Wood is one of those places, a north [...]
Buyer’s market: UK house prices post biggest fall since April as mortgage approval rates rise October 5, 2018 UK house prices saw their biggest fall in five months in September, while price increases compared to the same period in 2017 slowed to a three-month low. Figures from Halifax today showed the standard average house price in the UK fell to £225,995 in September, down from £229,284 the month before. This was also only [...]
Travelodge targets conferences centre attendees in £100m push to open new business-friendly hotels across the UK October 4, 2018 Travelodge is set to invest £100m in establishing new hotels aimed at the UK’s growing conference sector. The budget hotel chain said it would add 10 hotels close to conference centres to its portfolio. Read more: EU to decide on Radisson hotels sale to Jin Jiang in November It is targeting three locations in London and [...]
London office take-up climbs as Crossrail arrival and new hotspots fuel demand October 4, 2018 Demand for office space in Central London jumped in the third quarter of 2018, with take-up in the capital’s commercial property sector showing no sign of a slowdown in the run-up to Britain leaving the EU. Office take-up in the three months to the end of September hit 3.7m square foot, marking a six per [...]
Slippery slope for ski property as prices take a tumble despite record snowfall October 4, 2018 As Europe’s leading ski centres crank up their lifts ahead of the early-season starting later this month, new figures suggest some resorts on the Swiss alpine slopes are undergoing a property slump. Despite record levels of snowfall and growing investment in infrastructure, house prices across the Alps dipped 0.5 per cent over the last year, [...]
ONS: Housing affordability woes deepen as millennial homeowner figures drop October 4, 2018 The number of young people who own a home has tumbled by 10 per cent in the last decade, underlining fears that the UK’s property market is becoming increasingly unaffordable to a new generation of buyers. Compressed wages and rising house prices have contributed to the drop in the proportion of people between the ages of [...]