London crashpads top the commuter wish list
London employees have the longest average commute in Europe (43 minutes), according to the RAC. A study by the mayor’s office reveals that more than 770,000 people (about 23 per cent of London’s workforce) commute into the capital daily. Ten per cent of commuters travel for over two hours a day, while the average distance travelled is 51.3 km.
Walk-to-work commuters helped fuel the buy-to-let boom of the Noughties when developers rushed to build bijou apartments for busy professionals, mainly those working in financial services. Many of these apartments have reappeared on the market for sale or for rent. In some places, prices are down by as much as 20 per cent on three years ago.
Apart from quality of life reasons, it can make financial sense to buy a pied-a-terre in a vibrant or emerging business district because continuing demand normally boosts values over the longer term.
As with Canary Wharf, regeneration is creating new white-collar areas alongside traditional office locations such as the West End and City.
“Midtown” - sandwiched between the Square Mile and Covent Garden - has been colonised by law and accountancy firms; creative sector companies are fleeing to Camden, Clerkenwell and Shoreditch.
Train stations too are becoming key business hubs in their own right. Paddington, with its rejuvenated canalside and fast Heathrow link, has enticed Marks and Spencer and other blue chip corporates. Redevelopment of White City, anchored by the BBC, is a new business address for west London, while Victoria is no longer just a workplace for civil servants. Progressing fast is King’s Cross Central, with four million sq ft of office and retail space plus 2,000 homes.
Shard of Glass (pictured above), now rising on the forecourt of London Bridge station, will be Europe’s tallest skyscraper when complete in May 2012, a “vertical village”, with flats, shops, offices and hotel rooms making up the 80 storeys. The tower will transform the area around the station, one of London’s busiest, with 375,000 rail users per day. With over one million sq ft of office space, thousands of people will work at the Shard.
A stone’s throw away, alongside City Hall, is London Bridge City, a new office quarter for 20,000 workers
Such projects give local neighbourhoods a boost by making them a better place to live as well as work. Walk up and down trendy Bermondsey Street and you will see it is already benefiting from the “Shard effect”.
Studio apartments in zone one start at about £250,000. Those at Frobisher Crescent, a refurbished block at the Barbican, cost from £350,000.
Renting is a cheaper option for those who cannot afford to buy a bolthole in the centre of London. Estate agency Young London is offering luxury apartments at The Landmark, a tower block only 500 metres from the Canary Wharf trading rooms. Prices from £300 per week. At myBASE1 in Borough, flats in a swish new apartment scheme cost from £325 per week. At Devonshire Street, Mayfair (pictured left and below), rentals cost from £250 per week. Call 020 7593 3300 or visit www.younglondon.co.uk.
London workers can find out the cost of renting in any area of London by using a new interactive website set up by that avid bicycle commuter, Boris Johnson. Simply key in the street or postcode and you get area averages for the size of accommodation you want.
This “rents map” reveals that South Kensington is the most expensive place to rent (typically £625 per week). For smaller budgets, the current average rent for a shared house in the capital is £92 per week. Visit www.london.gov.uk/rents.
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Posted by: Kia | 10/07/2011 at 03:47 PM