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Em Morley

Top 20 London Commuter Hotspots

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 3:57 pm

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Top 20 London Commuter Hotspots

Top 20 London Commuter Hotspots

The amount of Londoners leaving the capital has reached record highs, hitting 250,000 a year according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is believed that most of those departing are hoping for family-sized homes near good schools.

However, those moving are still searching for somewhere not too isolated within a quick commute of the capital.

The high number of people leaving London has been fuelled by the Stamp Duty reform of December 2014. Hometrack recently found that the Home Counties benefitted most from the changes.

Savills estate agent predicts that London’s commuter hotspots will see the highest medium-term price growth in England. It based its findings on the amount of season ticket sales from the main commuting stations. So where is best for London commuters?

 

 

Countdown of top 20 London commuter hotspots

No.

 Area Travel time to London Average property price Average detached house price Annual season ticket cost

Annual season ticket + travel card cost
20 Bishops Stortford 30 minutes £324,324 £501,020 £3,936 £4,952
19 Redhill 35 minutes £305,891 £553,530 £2,672 £3,432
18 Oxford 57 minutes £411,601 £746,632 £4,788 £5,568
17 Shenfield 27 minutes £363,244 £608,423 £2,868 £3,976
16 Tunbridge Wells 50 minutes £329,754 £633,575 £4,364 £5,020
15 Maidenhead 20 minutes £427,999 £673,633 £2,908 £3,692
14 Slough 17 minutes £276,270 £644,998 £2,472 £3,252
13 Basingstoke 44 minutes £234,831 £360,475 £4,188 £4,944
12 Sevenoaks 33 minutes £589,203 £945,321 £3,288 £3,944
11 Winchester 58 minutes £414,851 £623,740 £4,812 £5,636
10 Tonbridge 42 minutes £318,166 £519,513 £3,980 £4,636
9 Milton Keynes Central 35 minutes £217,162 £333,801 £4,888 £5,812
8 Colchester 52 minutes £198,456 £297,539 £4,796 £5,880
7 Haywards Heath 44 minutes £313,830 £496,040 £3,808 £4,800
6 Guildford 37 minutes £408,824 £760,593 £3,400 £4,204
5 Cambridge 52 minutes £395,911 £676,965 £4,264 £4,648
4 Woking 27 minutes £371,238 £668,269 £3,052 £3,792
3 Chelmsford 35 minutes £261,411 £417,214 £3,728 £4,704
2 Brighton 52 minutes £334,934 £617,940 £4,068 £5,196
1 Reading 26 minutes £283,724 £485,399 £4,188 £4,976

A quarter of the top 20 spots are within half an hour of London, with Reading, Woking and Shenfield benefitting from the Crossrail development.

The closest is Slough, just 17 minutes from the capital.

Buy a London Home for £100,000 in Catford

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 3:20 pm

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Prospective buyers that are priced out of Clapham and East Dulwich could look south of the river to one of the only places in London where homes can be bought for under £100,000.

Catford is the affordable area offering these properties to hopeful homeowners. It is not a picturesque place, but is due redevelopment soon, so will be a good part of the capital to invest in.

Lewisham Council is planning a regeneration of the town centre and Transport for London has pledged to improve roads here.

New housing projects include Prospect Quarter, which is being built on the site of the former Catford greyhound stadium.

On the site, housing association Peabody has 38 shared-ownership homes for sale. These will be ready to move into at the end of June 2015 and those living or working in South East London will be given priority.

An additional 22 shared-ownership properties will go on the market at the end of October.

Head of Affordable Homes at Currell, which is selling the flats, Martin Fillery, says: “It is the last bastion of really affordable homes that is close to London. It really is the one place where you can buy a home for under £100,000. I think that it has been overlooked for years, but it is a key area.”1 

Buyers will receive a 40% share of a one-bedroom flat at the site for £76,000. The full market value is £190,000. Buyers will also need to pay rent of £247 per month and an estimated monthly service charge of £150.

For a 30% share of a two-bedroom flat, buyers will pay £93,000 for a property worth £270,000. The monthly rent on these homes is £470 and a service charge of around £165 will be added each month.

Prospect Quarter forms part of Barratt London’s Catford Green scheme. It will include 589 homes by 2017 and shops in landscaped grounds near Ladywell Fields. This area has recently been given tennis courts and a café.

This development will be boosted by its transport links. Commuters can go from Catford Bridge station to Waterloo East in 18 minutes, Charing Cross in 20 minutes and Cannon Street in 22 minutes.

Travelling from Catford to Blackfriars takes 22 minutes and residents can get to St Pancras in just over half an hour.

Both stations in Catford are in Zone 3 and an annual season ticket costs £1,508.

There are proposals for expanding the Docklands Light Railway and the Bakerloo line to Catford.

Bromley’s New Homes to Attract Buyers

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 2:54 pm

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The London Borough of Bromley will soon be attracting buyers after receiving part of a £221m Mayor of London fund to develop some of the capital’s high streets.

Bromley’s town centre is being improved with a new quarter of residential property, leisure space, shops and spots dedicated to the arts.

The £90m St Mark’s Square initiative is set to be finished later this year. The South East London suburb will get 200 private and affordable apartments around the new piazza and performance space, alongside a multiplex cinema, hotel, cafes and restaurants. Prospective buyers can contact Cathedral Group on 020 7939 0800.

Bromley is the largest borough in London, covering 59 square miles. The majority of this is greenbelt that spreads into Kent and Surrey. The area is just a 20-minute train journey from central London, making it attractive to professionals.

Young residents will likely look at Berwick Quarter in nearby Orpington. This project is hidden behind the high street and is close to the station. Prices start at £230,000 and hopeful buyers can call Robinson Jackson on 01689 833 322.

Berkeley Homes has recently had its plans to redevelop Orpington police station into 83 homes approved by the council.

 

 

Bid to overturn council licensing fails

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 2:42 pm

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An attempt to block a new council ruling regarding selective licensing for private sector landlords has been unsuccessful.

As a result, all private rental properties in Rotherham, Dinnington and parts of Maltby will require a five-year licence, which will cost up to £625. Rotherham council has implemented the scheme in order to try and improve standards in their part of the sector.

Challenge

The challenge to the scheme came from the Rotherham Action Group, a company founded by landlords within the town centre. However, its campaign came up short, after a judge ruled that the council acted, ‘rationally and proportionately,’ by launching the scheme. Even worse news for the group is that they are now faced with a bill of £23,128 to cover the council’s legal costs.

Bid to overturn council licensing fails

Bid to overturn council licensing fails

Ruling

Following the outcome of the ruling, all landlords of private rental properties within the areas mentioned must gain a licence for every home that they own. These licences will last for five years, with reductions on cost offered for landlords that have already had their properties sufficiently safety checked.

Campaigners are said to be unhappy after a similar scheme proposed in the London borough of Enfield was thrown out by the High Court. Additionally, just a single landlord took legal action in Enfield, accusing the council of failing to sufficiently communicate with the appropriate people before taking action.

 

It is unsure whether the group plans to appeal.

Stamp Duty Cuts Cause Record High Demand

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 2:22 pm

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House building firm Crest Nicholson has found that Stamp Duty cuts have caused record high levels of demand in the housing market, which has enhanced its half-year forward order book by 25%.

Stamp Duty Cuts Cause Record High Demand

Stamp Duty Cuts Cause Record High Demand

Chief Executive of Crest Nicholson, Stephen Stone, spoke of the boost after a trading update on Monday: “These sales rates are some of the best I’ve ever experienced in my career.”

Property prices in the UK have increased for the past two years after the Government aided buyers by reducing the Stamp Duty for most purchases in December 2014.

Crest Nicholson generally builds high quality homes in the South of England. The company said the Government’s cuts helped to drive forward sales up by 25% to 1,786 units and £336m in the six months to the end of April.

The shortage of second-hand homes on the market has seen the profits of builders around the country grow significantly.

Stone continues: “We saw a real spike from January, with no sales slowdown in the run-up to the election, which was something we had anticipated.”1

He believes that better employment levels, wage growth and mortgage availability during this time are the reasons behind the progress.

The average open market selling price increased by 20% to £322,000, indicating price inflation and a move to the higher end of the housing market.

Shares in Crest Nicholson rose by 31% since the beginning of 2015, with Stone saying investors are confident that the company will make £1 billion in annual sales by 2017.

In 2014, the firm saw a 16% increase in completions, to 2,530 new homes built, putting it two years ahead of the target volumes expected at the time.

1 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6858f03c-fdfb-11e4-9f10-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3agRBMCg0

House price growth rise prompts high forecast

Published On: May 20, 2015 at 12:40 pm

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Latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics have led one particular analyst to change his forecast for the entire 2015 housing market.

Growth

The figures showed that UK house price growth rose to an annual rate of 9.6% in the twelve years to March. This was in comparison to the yearly rate of 7.4% recorded in February. [1]

Regionally, the biggest rise was recorded in Scotland, with an annual increase of 14.6%. According to the Office of National Statistics, the cost of an average home north of the border now stands at a record £207,000.[1]

Additionally, the report suggests that the number of mortgages for property in Scotland increased by almost 50% between February and March. A good proportion of these transactions were for houses costing in excess of £500,000. As way as explanation for the surge, the Office for National Statistics said that, ‘it should also be noted that the Land Buildings Transaction Tax replaced UK stamp duty land tax in Scotland from April 1 2015.’[1]

In England, annual growth in the year to March was recorded in most regions. The East recorded the highest annual growth with a rise of 11.4%, followed by London and the South East, which both saw rises of 11.2%. London still has the largest average house price within the United Kingdom at £498,000.[1]

House price growth rise prompts high forecast

House price growth rise prompts high forecast

Increased optimism

In line with the encouraging figures, IHS Global Insight has decided to increase their forecast for house price growth during this year. Howard Archer, economist at the firm, said that, ‘we are lifting our forecast house price increase in 2015 to six per cent from five per cent, partly due to the increased upward impact on prices coming from a lack of properties on the market.’[1]

Archer stated that, ‘London may have slipped behind other parts of the south east but that obscures an evolving property market within the capital. Our research shows house prices in Hackney rising at twice the rate of other, more traditionally expensive boroughs.’[1]

[1] http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2015/5/latest-house-price-data-leads-to-higher-2015-forecast