The London Housing Strategy published by the Mayor of London highlights the need for London to build more new homes. In this report, London Major Boris Johnson states that overall the level of new housing supply has been at about 20,000 homes per annum, whilst the Capital requires 42,000 new homes to be built every year for the next 20 years.
The shortage in supply of new homes is being driven by the growth in economic activity in London which has had an impact on the growth of the population in London. London’s population is booming: it grew from 6.7 million in 1986 to 8.4 million in 2013. It is now projected to surpass its 1939 peak of 8.6 million as early as 2016. Best estimates are that it will reach nine million by 2020 and ten million by 2030.This is the equivalent of adding the population of the UK’s second biggest city, Birmingham, every ten years.
This growth in activity coupled with the Governments strategy to support the housing market is already bearing fruit. Many developers and investors are taking advantage of this shortfall in supply by jointly investing in development projects thus providing new stock to a growing market.
