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London Property �
London Property:
The Olympics Effect!
As we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II throughout 2012, and with a successful organization of Olympic Games last summer, much has been made of the status of London’ s real estate market. London remains in the top five global cities in regard to sought-after property with home- hunters and overseas investors continuously pouring in much of their cash. However house prices have witnessed significant swings over the past forty years, new research performed by Halifax has determined that property prices in London have managed to swell an incredible 189 %( inflation included) since 1971, i. e. an average annual rate of 2.7 % above inflation.
How exactly were the‘ benefits’ of the Olympics defined? So where does that leave the Olympics?
House price data collected by Lloyd’ s TSB for seven years since London was awarded the Olympics states that property values in the areas closest to the Olympic sites have gone up by an average of £ 60,000. Standard- house prices in postal districts near the Olympic site have risen from £ 208,148 to £ 266,730, i. e. + 28 %. The research also included 145 areas of London where the top performing one affected by the 2012 Games preparations was Homerton in Hackney( one of the areas closest to the Olympic town), sitting just 44th in the list with a property price increase of 56 % or £ 120,000.
Surprisingly, seven of the areas affected by Olympic construction lay in the bottom 20 performing postal codes with house price increases ranging from 28 % to a meagre 8 %. People living in Stratford, the literal home of the Olympic Stadium have only seen increases of 13 %, less than half the average across the rest of east London. In stark contrast, the largest rise in London over the past seven years occurred in the Victorian area of the City of Westminster which has witnessed an increase of 156 %.
However, a Lloyd’ s spokesperson( one of the main sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics) admitted it was difficult to tell whether these areas had benefited or not from the construction activity.
The statistics showed a trend of underachievement amongst areas affected by Olympic construction; however, there is still a sense of optimism as the‘ legacy’ is expected to arrive now that the Olympics is over. The Olympic Village housing the athletes will be converted into 5,000 homes and with London’ s solid economy; there has been a sort of protection from acute price rises during
12 DORCHESTER December 2012