The property boom will hold, but real house prices could easily fall
All the indications are that the housing market is well underpinned for some time, but two major threats still hang over it
2 May 2021 • 7:00pm
At the end of last week, the Nationwide index confirmed that house prices are continuing to rise strongly. You might well think that this is not much to write home about. After all, don’t house prices always rise? Actually, they don’t, and the increase over the last year confounds forecasts made by nearly all housing experts who thought the market would be weak because of the pandemic and lockdown.
Death of the office exaggerated as number of skyscrapers in London rises
The number of buildings over 20 storeys in planning or construction increased by 7.9pc last year on 2019 s total
15 April 2021 • 6:00am
Planning permissions granted for skyscrapers in the capital in 2020 were almost 11pc higher than those in 2019
Credit: Paul Lindsay / Alamy Stock Photo
More skyscrapers are being built in London now than before Covid struck, according to figures which suggest that fears the office is dying could be overblown.
A total of 587 tall buildings were in the planning and construction phases at the end of last year, research by Knight Frank and the New London Architecture think tank has found – up 7.9pc from 2019.
Kingdom hoping to attract 1m residents to the Line by 2030, as part of its Neom project
11 April 2021 • 5:00am
Rugby fans were left puzzled this year after seeing the Line, a futuristic city in the Saudi Arabian desert, being advertised during the Six Nations.
The ads promoted an audacious, and some might think far-fetched, plan to launch a 105-mile strip city in 2030 with no cars, roads or carbon emissions. Instead, the Line will run on renewable energy, providing shelter to 1m residents.
It is yet another scheme dreamt up by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of his £400bn Neom project – a desert settlement where residents can visit glow-in-the-dark beaches, watch cage-fighting robots and drink alcohol. Either way, the Line could prove a lucrative opportunity for British construction businesses, although many remain sceptical.
100 Bishopsgate is on course to easily surpass the £1.3bn paid for the Walkie Talkie in 2017
3 April 2021 • 7:00pm
View of the top of the now completed 100 Bishopsgate, a new, modern office block in the City of London financial district taller than the Cheesegrater
Credit: Graham Prentice / Alamy Stock Photo
A City skyscraper is set to become the UK’s most expensive office building when it goes up for sale with a predicted £1.8bn price tag later this year.
Canadian asset management giant Brookfield completed the 37-storey Square Mile building in 2019 after pressing ahead with the project in the wake of the Brexit referendum.