In London there is enough land to build 850000 units of new housing

To solve the crisis with housing, which is a real danger London will need to build at least 50,000 new homes every year, equivalent to 18 Olympic villages. To implement this task, the pace of construction of residential property in London is expected to be two times higher than they are now.

According to preliminary estimates of demographers, the population of London by 2021 will increase by 1 million.

A detailed analysis of the market shows that the greatest demand for residential property is expected to come from families with modest incomes – up to £50,000 a year, or 57% of the market. Despite the fact that most of the investors are interested in the top most expensive segment of the London property market, allowing you to get the greatest capital gains, forecast of the situation on the real estate market of London is clearly evidence in favor of what the government should send forces to the lower sector of the market.

Demand for property from middle-income families, earnings are estimated between £75,000 a year, is about 6% of the total market. Property prices in this sector range from £1000 to £2000 per square foot.

The urgent need for affordable housing in London as there is on the market for the sale of real estate and the rental market. Moreover, the rental market demand is far more than the market sale housing.

The last time London’s population peaked at 8.9 million people in 1930, when they built 60,000 new homes. The city then was clearly overcrowded and filled with slums, from which it was necessary to clean up the city. Now the situation is not so obvious, but the government needs to understand that it is impossible to bring the issue to the extent of the disaster. If the government does not have a proper attention to this issue and will not increase the volume of construction, the problem may impact on the competitiveness of London as a business and financial centre. Newly opening or expanding a business will think a hundred times, and whether to open a business in London, where a shortage of housing for employees.

Today, according to current plans, over the next five years will be built around 28,500 new housing units each year. Presumably, at this rate of construction, the city will miss about 21500 objects every year or 107500 objects by 2018. The main part of the unmet demand will be in the affordable housing sector – about 70%. In the more expensive segment of the market balance of supply and demand is expected to more moderate .

The specialists of the largest real estate companies, conducting the analysis strongly recommend that the builders concentrate their attention on the lower segment of the market.

To solve this problem in London has enough land. At a rough estimate, in London there are now plots of land, sufficient to build about 850000 residential properties. This is without regard to surplus public land, industrial land. The potential is huge. Need a vision of the city as a whole organism, agile planning and strong government that can solve this kind of problem.

® Maxim Savitsky 12.11.2013

Canning Town

Bartlett Park

Battersea Reach