Snow truth in tales of Olympian rise in property values

18 January 2010

I love snow and everything about it. But do you know what I love more than anything else about the white stuff descending? The sheer hypocrisy that surrounds it all.

We all curse and complain about how inconvenient it all is and how the 6.47am from Godalming took more than two hours to get past Woking.

But at the same time we all absolutely revel in it and after years of being told about the spirit of the blitz this, after all, is the nearest any of us are ever likely to get to it.

Now I don’t claim to be an Arthur Daley or a Del Boy but I do pride myself on being an opportunist so you will understand that it was with something akin to admiration that I read in The Evening Standard last week about a firm of Docklands estate agents who are claiming that the recent weather has caused “fed up commuters to stampede to buy homes in central London”.

Sorry, not even Arthur or Del could get away with this one and suspiciously when you read the piece in full the word “buy” changes to “rent”.

I’m no mathematician but let’s think about this. The cost of renting an average Lehman Brothers surrendered Docklands flat is probably in the region of £1,500 per month or £18,000 per annum compared with the cost of an annual season ticket from leafy Sevenoaks to London circa £2,500.

I don’t believe having the Olympic velodrome in your street will double the value of your two up, two down

The latter of course is inclusive of a few mornings under the duvet when the weather turns bad, which is an excuse you can’t get away with when living two minutes from the office. Doesn’t add up does it? Particularly if your Docklands pad is simply a pied á terre.

But the firm in question Franklyn James shouldn’t be criticised as it is only trying to sell property - which is what they are paid to do.

To be fair to them there are a few other porkies doing the rounds and the one I can’t believe so many have fallen for is the oft-made claim that the Olympics will add value to property in East London.

I have even read that overall values in London will soar in 2012 as our capital takes on the mantle of being the world’s leading city for that year.
Absolute nonsense all of it. Prices may well soar in 2012 but it will have nothing to do with events down Stratford way believe me.

I know the area around the Olympic park quite well and yes, it’s true, that the area will be improved by all the current development. But being quite brutal, the same could have been said whatever had been built there.

Call me a cynic but I just don’t go with all of this Olympian sport for all stuff and I simply don’t believe that having the Olympic velodrome at the end of your street is going to double the value of your average two up, two down mid-terrace in East Ham.

And you know what? I don’t think I’m alone either.

SIMON WHITE
DIRECTOR
LONDON’S CHARTERED SURVEYORS

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