A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London boroughs

 

Westminster

The Estate Gazette has awarded the Dojo offices in the Brunel building, 2 Canalside Walk as the National & Regional winner for the British Council of Offices, Fit Out of Workplace award. They said that the success of Dojo’s excellent workplace is testimony to the design team working in harmony with and having respect for the base build. The office is 30,000 sq ft and the designers were told there was “no room for cute”, resulting in a workspace where everything is functional yet striking.

London News Online reports that the number of empty homes in Central London has tripled in the past five years. There were 1,900 empty properties in Westminster in June 2022, compared with 543 in 2019. The figures are a huge contrast to the number of people waiting for homes in Westminster. More than 4,000 people are on the housing waiting list in the borough and the wait for a new home in the borough can be as long as 10 years. However, although there are nearly 2,000 empty homes in the borough, Westminster City Council is only able to charge 292 of these properties. Cllr Adam Hug (Leader, Westminster City Council) said: “We are proud of the diverse resident population of Westminster, but this data suggests something troubling, that the use of Westminster as a location to hide ill-gotten gains in the property market is spiralling out of control.”

The City

Property Week reports that trading firm Mitsui Bussan Commodities has signed a 10-year lease with owner Mitsubishi Estate London. It is for the entire first floor of Warwick Court building at Paternoster Square, totalling 25,300 sq ft. Last year, US fund manager T. Rowe Price committed to 143,000 sq ft of space at Warwick Court, which is wholly owned by the UK arm of Japanese real estate giant Mitsubishi Estate and plans to relocate its London base to the building in early 2023.

Camden

Property Week reports that a Vacant Bloomsbury office building, 34 Bloomsbury Way, is set to feature in Barnard Marcus’ sale on the 19^th October. Lot 41, a former solicitors office, is a five minutes’ walk from Holborn Underground station. It was previously slated for auction on 15^th September but failed to reach its reserve. The freehold, five-storey terraced building, which has an internal area of 3,627 sq ft, is not heritage listed and has a guide price of £2.75m. Barnard Marcus said potential buyers “may wish to consider alternative use and development of the building”, subject to gaining the necessary consents.

Islington

Property Week reports that Great Portland Estates (GPE) has exchanged contracts on the sale of the freehold of 50 Finsbury Square for £190m to a subsidiary of German family firm Wirtgen Invest Holding. GPE will retain responsibility for delivering the development with completion of the sale expected in the first quarter of next year following practical completion and commencement of the leases of the office and retail space. The deal reflects a topped-up net initial yield of 3.85% and capital value of £1,471 per sq ft. The building will provide 121,800 sq ft of offices, a terrace on the sixth floor and a further pavilion and roof terrace on the eighth floor overlooking Finsbury Square. There will also be 7,400 sq ft retail element of the property, consisting of four units fronting Finsbury Pavement. The entirety of the office space has been pre-let to telecommunications company Inmarsat Global Limited and two of the retail units have been pre-let and the other remaining two units are under offer. Once fully let, the rent on completion will be around £9m a year.

Hackney

Property Week reports that 189 homes have been approved for a new infill development on the De Beauvoir Estate in Hackney. Hackney Council, Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, Henley Halebrown and Stephen Taylor Architects have brought the scheme forward. It will provide 204,514 sq ft of residential space across six buildings, including 6,383 sq ft of non-residential floorspace, alongside the 189 new homes, green spaces and play areas. Half of the houses on the estate, located to the north of Regents Canal towpath, east of Islington and south-west of Hackney Central, will be affordable, with 59 being social rented homes and the remaining 36 residencies under shared ownership. Lizzie Le Mare (Director at Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design) said: “These plans will help to provide much-needed, high-quality housing that promotes an improved quality of life for both existing and new residents, with strong design principles at their heart.”

Tower Hamlets

Reuters reports that HSBC is reviewing its Canary Wharf tower HQ as its London base. The bank said it wanted to assess its “best future location in London” ahead of its lease expiring at the 45-floor tower at 8 Canada Square in early 2027. This is all according to a staff memo signed by John Hinshaw (COO, HSBC). According to the memo, the bank said the review would include the option of staying and renovating the tower which bears its name, but it would keep its global headquarters in London. HSBC said it would occupy 25% less space in the tower by closing some floors and relocating teams, to lower the cost of running the building and save energy.

Southwark

London Se1 reports that plans for an 18-storey office block have been rejected by Southwark councillors. The scheme – which one councillor said “looks like Ayers Rock has landed on Elephant & Castle” – was unanimously rejected by Southwark Council’s planning committee at the end of a five-hour hearing on Tuesday night. The site – known as plot H1 of the Elephant Park masterplan for the redevelopment of the Heygate Estate – is at the corner of Elephant Road and Walworth Road, immediately to the east of the railway line. Before the demolition of the Heygate Estate, the corner plot was a green open space. The plans were brought by Lendlease with ACME architects. Office use of the site wasn’t foreseen in Lendlease’s outline planning permission for the Heygate Estate approved in 2013. The tower would have provided workspace for about 3,500 people with the potential for a proposed health hub on the lower floors of the building, however this was not confirmed. Cllr Nick Johnson said: “I’m fairly confident if we asked 100 people on Walworth Road ‘What does the area really want: a very large office block or more affordable homes?’ they would say the latter.”

Lambeth

Property Week reports that real estate investor Mitheridge Capital Management and developer London Green have unveiled plans for a residential-led, mixed-use development. The development will be on the former industrial site Hardess Yard in Loughborough Junction. A spokesman for the firms declined to specify how many homes would be built but William Yerburgh (Managing Partner, Mitheridge) said “London desperately needs more homes. We believe strongly in an approach to housing provision that is affordable but also enhances the character and vibrancy of local communities.”

RBKC

According to Kensington estate agent Russell Simpson, the Kensington property market is highly influenced by proximity to private and state schools. On average, house prices are 8% higher in proximity to good schools. Bertie Russell (Director, Russell Simpson) explained that ‘we regularly receive enquiries for homes close to specific schools, whilst we see a spike at certain points, such as when applications open and placement decisions are made’. Hermione Russell (Sales Negotiator, Russell Simpson) added that ‘homes near good schools will often hold their value in a challenging market and tend to sell faster if the market stalls, simply because there will always be demand from other families willing to pay the premium for their children to have access to some of the best educational centres in the world’.

 

Hammersmith and Fulham

London News Online reports that plans have been submitted for 18-storey tower block for women who can’t afford rent by the Women’s Pioneer Housing (WPH). WPH is an association based in Hammersmith and Fulham that “challenges gender inequality and provides much-needed homes for women”. They want to build a mix of flats and shared living spaces by bulldozing a 36 block of one-bed flats and its current office building on 227 Wood Lane. The project includes an 18-storey tower with affordable flats, workspace, a gym, launderette, a roof terrace, a new office for WPH and a cafe open to the public with space for 50 people. WPH was set up in 1920 to give women more affordable homes amid the fight for gender equality. The association aims to give good-quality homes to women who struggle to rent privately, and it owns around 1,000 properties in West London.

 

WHP originally submitted an application for a 29-storey tower with 80 apartments, offices and 350 shared living spaces in January 2020. But the plans were reconsidered after complaints about the height of the building. The planning committee will decide on Tuesday October 11 if it gets approves with the council’s planning officers recommending that the project goes ahead.

 

Property Week reports that the Thackery Group has sold the grade II-listed Castle Club to care-home provider KYN for £20m. The club is located on Broomhouse Lane, next to the famous Hurlingham Club. Thackeray is currently restoring the structure and adding a three-storey extension at the rear of the site that will provide a 32-bed care home. Building works are expected to be completed by the end of the year, at which point KYN will take over the fit-out phase.

General

Property Week reports that RICS, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has launched a consultation on guidance for valuing flats with cladding. The loss of confidence in the fire safety of blocks of flats has had a severe impact on the property market and leaseholders, RICS said, with many still unable to sell due to the absence of mortgage finance. RICS is encouraging engagement from industry, government, the public, leaseholder and homebuyer groups to ensure the approach is workable in practice. Once the consultation finishes on 31 October, implementation of the guidance will be decided upon by the SRB.

In April, then housing secretary Michael Gove ordered developers to pay just over £2bn for remediation works on their own buildings, taking the liability for the costs away from leaseholders.