Property prices set to rise by a third at tech hub
Melissa York introduces the high-concept tower capitalising on Tech City’s success
THE thriving tech industry clustered around Silicon Roundabout hasn’t just attracted investment from the Treasury in recent years.
It’s now starting to attract the gaze of premium property developers who plan to modernise the landscape around Old Street to persuade people to live where they work.
Developer Groveworld is behind Canaletto, a 31-storey new build tower on City Road on the banks of Regent’s Canal, which they are marketing as “London’s first truly beautiful residential high-rise development.”
It’s certainly striking with its curving facade of aluminium and glass, designed to gleam in the early morning sun.
In the last three years, the number of tech companies in east London has increased by 260 per cent from 200 firms to 1,300. Back in December 2012, David Cameron also invested £50m to transform the Old Street roundabout into the biggest indoor civic space in Europe, with a view to supporting entrepreneurs and start ups, with a view to create a further 70,000 jobs in the tech industry.
“The Regent’s Canal used to be the main artery of commerce in industrial London,” says Aref Lahham, managing director of sponsors Orion Capital Managers. “Today, it links together London’s vibrant tech communities – from Paddington and King’s Cross to Silicon Roundabout and East London. Canaletto residents will be within walking distance of each along the canal of enterprise and creativity.”
As a consequence, prices along the City Road corridor are also set to soar, according to Knight Frank’s London Hotspots research, which estimates property values will rise 36 per cent by 2016. The Canaletto tower is due to be finished the year before, comprising 190 apartments, from studios to three-bedroom family flats, and one penthouse.
Residents can also expect access to hotel-style facilities that are becoming the norm in London new builds, including a swimming pool, gym, spa, cinema, a residents’ club and terrace on the 24th floor, and – of course – fibre optic broadband. A new restaurant, which will be open to the public on the ground floor, is also expected to make its debut on the London food scene when the development opens.
But Lahham doesn’t think it will be just a development for techies living nearby. “Canaletto will appeal to a wide range of potential home-buyers who are looking for state-of-the-art amenities, an incredible location, and a unique aesthetic. It’s a self-contained community.”
The developer’s confidence in the power of Canaletto’s design has a lot to do with Dutch architect Professor Ben van Berkel, founder of Amsterdam-based UN studio, who chose Canaletto as his first major project in the UK. He’s perhaps best known for his Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Scotts Tower in Singapore, and the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam.
Apart from its shining curves, the design breaks the volume of the building up into three-to-five storey segments, imagined as many “neighbourhoods in the sky”, each with views over the City and the basin waterways to the north.
The guide price for studios is £500,000, while one and two bedroom apartments will cost in between £710,000 and £810,000.
For viewings or more information, call Jones Lang LaSalle on 020 7337 4000.