You can forget starting on the Tower Hamlets property ladder in the New Year if you want to set up home with your family on the government’s ‘Help To Buy’ programme.
There were no ‘new build’ family properties in estate agents’ windows in 2017 in London’s once-impoverished East End that were going for less than £600,000, the roof of the ‘starter’ scheme for first-time buyers.
Not a single house below the threshold was found, nor in neighbouring Hackney, according to a survey by James Pendleton property agents.
“This shows the severe shortage of properties being built in London for families,” a Pendleton spokesman said. “Only 2.7 per cent of ‘new build’ property is below £600,000.”
It puts east London in the ‘luxury’ league with Islington, Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, making the equity loan scheme for up to 40 per cent of a new home out of reach.
You would have to go right to the other side of Greater London for any chance of a cheaper property, according the survey, such as Croydon or Richmond.
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