Rabbi Abraham Pinter: internal competition drives land grab

House prices: Homerton up 69%, Shoreditch up 53%, Clapton and Dalston up 39%

These figures from Lloyds TSB, which owns Halifax, show that since winning the Olympics bid house prices in Homerton are up by 69% and up by 53% in Shoreditch compared to the 36% London average.

While the research says that only four out of 14 "Olympic postal districts" (explained below) have beaten the London average of 36% increase over that period, all of these districts are in Hackney: Homerton 69%, Shoreditch 53%, Clapton and Dalston both 39%.

All the worst performers appear to be further east. The least impressive being Stratford, the one with greatest exposure to the Olympics. Up just 3%.

Comments at the end of this Telegraph piece discuss whether the rises have anything to do with the Olympics.

Last year Jules Pipe told Blood and Property that people moving to Hackney do not primarily see their homes as an investment:

Blood and Property: To what extent do you think that changes in the borough are related to property prices and new people moving here - how easily do you think that this process could be reversed (i.e. do you think that many hackney residents see their homes as investments or just as homes?)


Jules Pipe: "Hackney is a very popular borough for a variety of reasons, including its improving transport links, its vastly improved schools, popular leisure facilities such as London Fields Lido and its many parks, its status as a vibrant arts and cultural hub, amongst many other reasons.

"The Council’s research suggests that many of those moving into the borough since 2003 have been young, childless households on higher incomes than the current borough average, who rent privately. The impact of rising property prices in Hackney - as for London and the whole country - means that while owner-occupiers who bought during the past few decades will have benefited considerably from capital gains or opportunities to rent out their homes, the market has become very expensive for first-time buyers. This would suggest that the driving factor for today’s incomers is the desire to live in the borough, rather than seeking investment opportunities.

"The Council is committed to ensuring high quality, affordable housing for all Hackney residents. Right now across Hackney construction work is taking place to build hundreds of new social-rented and affordable homes, including council housing, after the Council lobbied the Government and received a total of over £43million in Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) funding since last September.

"For almost 30 years, affordable housing across the country often only got built as a spin-off of new private developments, and the downturn in the housing market threatened to bring even that to a halt. The commercial marketplace cannot be left as the only force to drive how housing is delivered. The Council has been working with the Government and its agencies and has successfully strengthened their confidence to give Hackney their social housing investment directly, so that we can deliver homes that are much needed by local residents."

'Postal districts' used to define the following fourteen postal districts that are located close to the site of the 2012 Olympic Park: Bethnal Green, Bow, Clapton, East Ham, Forest Gate, Dalston, Homerton, Leyton, Leytonstone, Manor Park, Plaistow, Shoreditch, Stratford and Walthamstow.

Nationwide: Hackney house prices up 22% in 12 months

According to a story in the Evening Standard, research by Nationwide Building Society showed:

"Prices rose faster in Hackney and Hammersmith & Fulham — both with 22 per cent increases — than anywhere else in the country. Property experts said the dramatic recovery in the London market was down to foreign investors cashing in on the weakness of the pound combined with higher salaries and bonuses in the City and a shortage of homes up for sale."

Hackney property prices down and staying down

A story in the Times says: "In August last year the property consultancy Drivers Jonas published a blackly gloomy report showing that property prices in the boroughs of Hackney, Newham and Waltham Forest had fallen by more than 20 per cent, compared with the London average of 13.7 per cent."

A couple of paragraphs later the story says: "By January, however, prices were rising in every eastern borough except Redbridge and Hackney..."

Hackney £518 per sq foot, Chelsea £690 per sq foot

Primelocation blog says: "Here’s what £1 million can buy you in ten of Britain’s largest cities:

"In Kensington and Chelsea, £1 million will get you 1,443 sq ft – that’s a two/three bed flat in a Victorian terrace conversion – working out as £690 per sq/ft.

"In Hackney, you’ll get slightly more: a three-bed Georgian terraced house of 1,928 sq ft, costing you £518 per sq ft."

WALFORD AND DALSTON - 436% rise in property prices...

According to research reported by Digital Spy: "Property prices on Albert Square (based of Fasset Square Dalston) have increased by 436% during EastEnders' 25 years on the air...

"The Walford homes were reportedly worth an average of £122,813 when the BBC soap first hit screens in 1985, but a typical Square residence would now cost £574,764."

Planning protest

http://www.nohackneyhighrise.org.uk/?p=587:
"This Planning Application proposes four 7-10 storey high-rise high density residential tower blocks on the River Lee Navigation opposite North Millfields, in the Borough of Waltham Forest.Local Councillors representing Leabridge Ward in Hackney have asked for this Application (to WF) to be discussed at the Planning Sub-Committee Meeting at 6.30pm on Wednesday 3rd February. Hackney’s Planning Officers are recommending the Borough should put in an objection to Waltham Forest."

Biggins in Hackney - 50k to 800k.

Christopher Biggins didn't want "come dine with me" viewers to see his Hackney home - according to the Daily Mail. But his place didn't sound too bad when he told the Telegraph about it on January 21: "In 1984 I bought a lovely three-bedroom terrace for £50,000 in a development of 16 homes designed by the famous architect Piers Gough. They are all unique homes – ours has a double-height drawing room with a first-floor minstrel gallery and an 18ft-high window leading out onto a little garden.

"It's all very pretty and I would say it must be worth between £750,000 and £800,000 today. In fact I have just paid off my mortgage. I went into the Alliance & Leicester in Plymouth with my chequebook this month." (Jan 21)