In response to the housing shortage, the Mayor of London has recently announced plans for a further four housing zones across the capital. This reflects the need to accelerate efforts to deliver the new housing that the ever-expanding city needs. The new zones in the borough of Redbridge, Enfield, Havering and Tower Hamlets will collectively provide the city with 12,000 new homes. This will raise the number of housing zones announced to 15 with a total of 49,105 homes created. 14,055 of those homes will fall into the affordable category. The Mayor’s £162 million contribution to the new zones is a result of the collaborative effort between local boroughs, the Government and the Greater London Authority. The aim is to accelerate the development of areas that would not normally benefit.
The housing zones will feature new primary schools, a large scale park, two newly constructed railway stations and new retail and entertainment facilities. The Mayor has stated that freeing up vacant sites from extended approval processes and providing a substantial boost to funding will equip London with essential new properties, as well as creating highly connected urban districts for future generations. The four new zones will also bring the project much nearer to the projected construction target of 50,000 new homes.
Havering boasts one of the biggest development sites at 12 square kilometres, and the construction of the new Beam Park railway station will provide commuters with a short 20 minute ride into the heart of the city. The Beam Park land site was one of the biggest in the Mayor’s portfolio and its recent release for property development will result in the transformation of industrial land into a garden suburb that will offer 3,457 new homes.
The Meridian Water Station will have four trains running into central London every hour by March 2018, and the Ilford Town Centre will capitalise on the arrival of Crossrail by building just under 2,220 new properties. Riverside zone in Tower Hamlets will produce over 3000 residential properties with the capacity to almost double the amount of new homes built over the life of the zone.
The new zones are all part of the Mayor’s plan to build nearly half a million homes over the next decade. If you are a property developer, investor or portfolio holder looking for lucrative new investment opportunities we can help. We can offer full investor services, guaranteed rent schemes and comprehensive property and block management in Havering and all other boroughs.
