... makes me reflect on research that came out several years ago about the young professional classes being attracted to more culturally mixed areas, attracted by their ethnic diversity and vibrancy... A visit to London's Hoxton and Shoreditch over the weekend confirmed this view. The run down streets were full of 20 somethings seeking pleasure and experiences all attracted by the places slightly edgy feel... These areas can often provide landlords with some great letting opportunities as properties tend to be cheaper than in more established areas but rents are strong and there is always the potential for more rapid capital appreciation as a result of gentrification.

Something tells me PropertyHawk's not from 'round here... but if he can find some of those cheap Hoxton or Shoreditch properties, I'm all-ears. (Not literally, obviously.)

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

According to X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, not only can you not take Hackney out of the girl, you can't take the girl out of Hackney. According to Virgin music news, she's in the process of buying the flat she's been renting.

Leona said: "We were renting it but the landlord was like, 'You have to get out now.' I talked him into selling it to me. When you're settled it's hard to move."

But why was her landlord about to kick her out? What kind of landlord wants to kick a tenant out when they clearly have the funds to pay the rent? Was this a buy-to-letter in trouble?

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Once described as “holding the key to London's future growth” by Ken Livingstone, East London is at risk of falling from grace. The promised Olympic revival is already suffering from funding problems, while the collapse of some of the world's biggest banks has left Canary Wharf and the Docklands, often described as “soulless” by nonresidents, feeling eerier than usual.

Actually... no. If you want to know what a ghost town looks like, you should have visited Docklands back in the early 1990s. I can remember standing somewhere near Canary Wharf and wondering why I was whispering. Those flats will eventually fill up, just slowly, and not at 2007 buy-to-let prices.

Little Detroit, Thamesmead [October 20, 2008]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

As a development, the future of Pan Peninsula is assured. Work is said to be several months ahead of schedule and the towers appear to be almost finished. But as an investment, the immediate future is far less rosy. A local estate agent revealed that a client bought a one-bedroom flat two years ago, off-plan, for £420,000. So far he has paid two deposits totalling 20 per cent of the price, just over £80,000. Now the flat is thought to be worth only £375,000. He is trying to sell for that price. If he can sell, it will limit his loss to £45,000. If he cannot, he faces losing his deposit of more than £80,000.

This is what the expression "crunch time" was invented for. We say... if the buyer has the cash (and that's not inconceivable considering the kind of investor who was eyeing up flip possibilities when the Pan Pensinsula project was launched)... go ahead, finish the deal, live in it or get a tenant, and wait. You've only lost money if you sell at or near the bottom.

"Several months ahead of schedule", though... interesting, isn't it, how falling prices can focus a developer's mind?

Pen Peninsula - details emerging [December 5, 2008]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

And lives to tell the tale. Actually, this is an interesting piece about perception, reality and depressing territorial violence in the Hackney, Dalston areas; and it's sparked some lively debate in the comments section. Go visit.

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Murdoch bought it for £10m, Marcus Cooper's paying £200m for it, but plans to build houses worth £500m on it. It's Wapping, and it's about to enter its next phase of development. More here.

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The Independent get a guided tour. Cornelia Parker's an artist. Her home is on Old Nichol Street, Parker gives some interesting history about the neighbourhood's less salubrious past, before Shoreditch House and successful artists arrived. Apparently, it's:

... said to be the root of the term "nicked", due to the number of criminals working around here. In 1880, it was deemed so run-down they bulldozed these streets. If you look at maps from that period, there's literally a blank space around here! Even now, if you keep an eye on an abandoned car, you'll see it will soon get stripped and then you know not to park near it, as it will be torched next.

A little harsh? She lives in an old print works, with a solar panel on the roof, but worries that surrounding building will cut off the light. It's an interesting piece.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Apparently, the light's "special". It's the George Tavern on Commercial Road. Plans to knock down next door's Stepney's nightclub (mmm, sounds nice) and replace it with affordable housing has left the George's landlady concerned about the future of her pub. Moss and a band of east London fashionistas are also concerned... the pub's also used as an impromptu venue for fashion shoots. Go here for a picture of Moss in a campaigning t-shirt.

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Angel Cottage (2a Windmill Lane) stood on the corner of Windmill Lane and Angel Lane, it was built in 1826... when Stratford was a rural area not yet connected to London by rail. It was destroyed over the weekend. Nobody - as yet - knows who was responsible. English Heritage have advised Newham Council to hand the matter over to the police.

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Every time a council tenant decided to cash in, my estate agent would give me a call to see if I knew of an architect who might be persuaded to buy.

That's Isabel Allen, on the 4homes blog, writing about her previous home in the Brunswick Centre. But Brunswick's success, she argues, isn't about the architecture, it's about the location. And it's the location - again, not the Brutalist architecture - that's at the heart of Robin Hood Gardens' failure.

The estate (a Utopian streets-in-the-sky dream by husband-and-wife architectural team Alison and Peter Smithson, built in Poplar, east London, at the start of the 1970s) is threatened with demolition, and not everybody's delighted. It's not in a great place (knocking it down won't help), and it's structurally and socially flawed... but once it's gone it will be gone forever, and there'll come a time when a new generation will pour over the photographs and shake their heads in disbelief... they just tore it down? Yes, son, they just tore it down, replaced it with cheap-and-easy apartments for the middle classes, their development chums making small fortunes in the process, and sent the original tenants scattering...

Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate