Tuesday 22 April 2014

"Community generated land values" part the manieth

From the Evening Standard:

The arrival of Boris bikes has fuelled a rise in the rental value of homes in areas considered to be property “backwaters”, estate agents claimed today.

Research by Benham & Reeves found rents had increased by up to 25 per cent in areas such as Sands End, Walworth and Haggerston since hire bikes were introduced.

The survey, of around 200 homes, has been approved by Transport for London. It was commissioned after tenants began to puzzle agents by requesting properties in specific streets.

Marc von Grundherr, director at Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings, told the Standard:

"Over the space of two or three months, I had a couple of tenants saying I don’t want to rent in that street, I want to rent in this street.

"They said it’s because there is a bank of bikes next to the property. I started to think whether there was a correlation between the bikes going in and price increases."

Research found substantial rent increases in areas not served well by the Tube, such as Cubitt Town (12 per cent), Haggerston (16 per cent), Olympia (20 per cent), Walworth (22 per cent) and Sands End (25 per cent). Average rents across London have risen by five per cent over the same period.

Previously many tenants dismissed these areas because they are a 10-minute walk or more from the nearest Tube or train station. The bikes are said to be the “missing link” in the public transport network.

7 comments:

A K Haart said...

A 10-minute walk? Not much of a missing link is it?

Mark Wadsworth said...

AKH, things are different down here.

Every minute commute time saved = £5.60 on the weekly rent, allegedly.

So if having a Ken Bike outside your front door saves you eight minutes' walk (two minutes cycling instead of ten minutes walking), that's £43.20 on your rent. Thank you very much, cheque will do nicely but direct debit preferred.

Lola said...

Gordon Bennett! LVT. A no brainer eh?

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, you would have thought so.

benj said...

@MW

An extra 8 mins in bed every day £43.20?

Sounds about right to me.

Bayard said...

"I started to think whether there was a correlation between the bikes going in and price increases."

No shit, Sherlock!

Dinero said...

"I started to think whether there was a correlation between the bikes going in and price increases"

Ha Ha that is funny, picture him strolling around Haggerston while pontificating like Henry George in San Fransisco circa 1870