Due to open in 2018, Crossrail is already causing big property ripples. The east-west route across the capital will bring an extra 1.5 million people to within 45 minutes of central London.
With London’s population already at a postwar high and at the current rate of increase, the capital will grow by the equivalent of an extra borough every three years, hitting nine million people by 2019, 10 million by 2030 and 11 million by 2050, according to the Office for National Statistics. The city therefore needs at least 500,000 new homes over the next decade plus a more extensive transport network taking people to and from work.
Most of this population growth is expected to happen in outer London, yet jobs are increasingly clustered in the centre. This reality will continue to create good long term investment opportunities across London, both for the letting and sales market.
