Tag Archives: middle-east
Group of experts created to help bring more affordable homes to London
The Mayor of London has released the first details of his plans to set up what he describes as a powerful Homes for Londoners team at City Hall to oversee home building in the capital and boost the delivery of new and affordable homes. As a first step Sadiq Khan has begun recruiting new experts to scrutinise 'viability assessments', the financial details that lie behind how much affordable housing new developments include. The experts, who will be drawn from finance surveyors and property consultant experts and be based at City Hall, will support housing delivery by making planning decisions faster and more consistent, and by ensuring new developments include the maximum amount of affordable housing. Khan will also lead a new Homes for Londoners board, formed of London Boroughs, housing associations, and developers. The board will oversee delivery, land assembly and investment decisions, and will draw on expertise from across the housing and property sectors to help develop new policy for the capital. ‘Home ownership has been slipping increasingly out of reach for more and more Londoners, and rents have been getting harder and harder to afford. I want to be honest with Londoners from the start that it will take time to turn things around,’ he said. ‘I am determined that Londoners get the same opportunities this great city gave me. That is why I am setting up my Homes for Londoners team to speed up home building and to move towards 50% of new homes in London being genuinely affordable to rent and buy,’ he added. A review of capacity and skills across the GLA will now get underway. Its aim is to ensure the Homes for Londoners team can play a more active role in the delivery of housing, particularly in bringing forward public land in London, and speeding up the planning process. This may also lead to additional expertise and support being recruited into the team in due course. David Montague, chair of the g15, said that Homes for Londoners will bring together the GLA, housing associations, local authorities and house builders to tackle the capital's housing crisis. ‘The priority now must be to build a long term pipeline of clean serviced and consented land. With this we can guarantee apprenticeships, jobs, economic growth, thriving communities and affordable homes. Without it, London will lose out in the competition for investment and growth,’ he pointed out. Baroness Jo Valentine, chief executive London First, which has published a major report on Homes for Londoners, described the move as an important and encouraging step towards solving the capital's housing crisis. ‘We want it to have a relentless focus on delivery, including getting more public land into the market,’ she added. According to Steve Bullock, executive member for housing, London Councils, believes that it will help all key agencies work closer together towards building the thousands of extra homes London urgently needs. Continue reading
Cost of land to build prime homes in Asia still rising
Prices of residential sites in Asia increased by 1.9% in the first half of 2016, down from 2.8% in the preceding six months, put office land increased from 1.9% to 2.2%. Overall development land investment volumes in Asia matched the level registered in the corresponding period last year, according to the Prime Asia Development Land Index from international real estate firm Knight Frank. As compared to the preceding six months, however, they were 40.4% lower and the index report explains that land markets tend to be more active in the second half of the year, which accounts for 60% of the transactions historically. With state owned enterprises purchasing land aggressively, China, which accounts for more than 90% of the deals in Asia, saw a 6% year on year increase in volumes while in Thailand some major deals boosted volumes by 190.4%. However, cross border land investment volumes fell by 11.5% year on year. ‘Part of the reason is that while Chinese developers have previously snatched up land in Hong Kong and Singapore, they now appeared to have joined their local counterparts to become more cautious amid the ongoing correction in housing prices in these markets,’ the report explains. As a result, China bought 88.8% less land year on year in the rest of Asia. In China, among the cities tracked, Shanghai experienced the strongest growth in prime residential land prices. ‘While the government raised the down payment requirement on second and subsequent properties as well as tightened non-locals’ purchase eligibility, shadow banking and peer to peer financing helped home buyers circumvent these rules, although authorities are closing the loopholes,’ it adds. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, residential prices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai surged by 15.3%, 12.8% and 19.5% respectively in the first half of 2016 and the report says this emboldened developers to bid for land aggressively. In particular, Shanghai saw the average premium over reserve price in residential land auctions soar to 154% in the first six months of the year from 60% in the corresponding period last year. As a result of an overhang of unsold prime housing inventory in Mumbai and New Delhi that requires an estimated four and seven years to clear respectively, the Knight Frank indices registered a decline in prime residential land prices. It adds that strong office leasing demand boosted the prices of prime office development sites in Bengaluru, which grew the fastest in the region. Similarly, prices of commercial land in Mumbai and New Delhi outperformed those of residential sites. Tokyo registered the largest increase and the report says that the negative interest rate introduced by the Bank of Japan has brought mortgage rates down, supporting housing demand. Indeed, recent condominium launches with hefty price tags were met with much enthusiasm from home buyers, with one development in Minato ward even fetching a record high average price of US$33,800 per square meter. Sites for office development in Asia also… Continue reading
Research reveals extent of incorrect property listings in UK
When buying a home prospective sellers expect the details to be listed correctly but new research has found that 48% of houses in sale across the UK contain rooms that are listed incorrectly. The analysis of estate agent data also found that 36% of single bedrooms rooms are technically too small to be classed as such for anyone aged over 10 and 17% of double rooms are not big enough to be inhabited by two people. Liverpool has the most errors for single rooms with 69% listed not meeting size requirements as set out by the Housing Act 1985 which says that a child under the age of 10 can occupy a room which is less than 50 square feet because they are classed as ‘half a person’, however a single bedroom should have a floor space of between 50 and 70 square feet. Leeds has the most errors for double bedrooms with 14% listed as such not meeting the requirements that double bedrooms for two people should be at least 110 square feet. One property in the city even listed a 69 square foot room as a double bedroom. The city with the least errors is Edinburgh where just 3% if single rooms did not meet the requirement and 4% of double rooms. Estate agents in Manchester and Glasgow were also pretty accurate. The research also found that a further 6% of rooms across the UK are technically uninhabitable, containing rooms smaller than the 50 square feet legally required to be classified as a single bedroom. Estate agents in Sheffield are guiltiest of this, with 15% of single bedrooms rooms advertised being too small to be habitable. When looking at properties overall, estate agents in Bristol are the most inaccurate, as 66% of properties for sale in the city had at least one incorrectly listed bedroom. This is followed by Sheffield at 60%, Liverpool at 57% and Birmingham also at 57%. Estate agents in Edinburgh are by far the most honest overall with only 17% of properties in the Scottish capital containing incorrect room listings. ‘Anyone who has purchased a property knows the marketing literature can often be misleading, but it is concerning to see so many properties across the UK being marketed by estate agents as having single and double bedrooms which technically aren’t fit for purpose,’ said Nick Brabham, head of SELECT Premier Insurance which carried out the research. ‘We urge buyers to check the measurements of bedrooms before putting in an offer on a house; otherwise they may find their double bedroom barely has enough space for a bed. It’s easy to think a room looks big enough when there is no furniture in it so if in doubt, check against the official standards and let estate agents know that they are marketing it incorrectly,’ he added. Continue reading
