Blog

What all fail to do with any kind of real accuracy is drill down into specific areas. All will talk about 'London' (as though it’s some kind of village), and some will talk about 'Inner' and 'Outer' London. I'm only interested in inner London, but that's a very big place, and what's happening in Chelsea, Holland Park, Nine Elms or Bloomsbury, bears no relevance to what's happening to property prices in East London, let alone Canary Wharf.

I'm not having a go at these national commentators, I'm really not, their stats serve a purpose, but in this brave new world of big data surely someone with an algorithm or an abacus could find the time to provide us all with a little accuracy?

But perhaps it's not even possible, and there's a very definite reason for this. Particularly in Canary Wharf and the surrounding areas.

Canary Wharf is new-build heavy.

Much of what you see around here being built (where it’s still concrete and cranes, rather than finishing touches) is actually already sold. In some instances these apartments were pre-sold back in 2015, and many will not be ready to move in to until 2019, 2020, or even 2021.

The national commentators do not have access to the sales data of the developer, and as these apartments are neither mortgaged or completed yet there is NO data for their pricing. But as an estate agent I do know what they have sold for.

Estate agents and developers talk in terms of £'s per square foot (£/sqft or PSF). To the uninitiated this is the sold price of the property divided by total square feet of internal space of the property. So, if sold for £1,000,000 and it's 1,000 sq ft in size, its £1,000/sqft.

Right now, in terms of completed property, the very best of what Canary Wharf has to offer, say apartments in Pan Peninsula, sell for around £1,000/sqft.

Many of the developments you see in the area which are still mid-build and will be completed in 2019-2021 have sold for £1,200-£1,400/sqft over the last couple of years.

So why would you pay £1,200-£1,400/sqft for a property which is perhaps only worth £1,000/sqft now?

To be continued...