The Olympic games in London, will it help or hinder our property woes? Will the prices of commerecial property and serviced offices leap ahead like a long jumper or drop like a shot put.
Well, it’s difficult to find agreement over this. There are so many different sides to the games and so many different parts of London will be affected.
Many experts suggest there are salutary lessons to be learned from under-used former Olympic villages in Barcelona and Sydney. According to its report, there are concerns even now that these developments, ‘can suffer social problems and isolation,’ rather than integration into the local communities. Athens, at least initially, was the worst of the lot: ‘A full 12 months after the Olympic Games all the houses were empty.’
The Olympic Park site alone will accommodate 9,000 permanent homes, half of which will be redeveloped from the athletes’ village by property giant Lend Lease and its housebuilding partner First Base.
Lend Lease and First Base want to turn the athletes’ village into Britain’s first £1bn residential real estate investment trust. They are banking on the idea that more Londoners will be prepared to rent property as London’s housing shortfall and affordability crisis worsens.
It is said that between 500,000 and 900,000 visitors will descend upon London during the Games. However, experts have been keen to emphasise how difficult it is to predict such a figure, citing the wildly inaccurate estimates previously given by previous host cities.
It is hoped that, if the organisers pull the logistics off, visitors from emerging economies like Russia, China and India will be keen to whip out their cheque books and boost the prime central London property market further.
Of course, London 2012 brings with it many positives. As has been pointed out, other cities have benefited greatly. For example, Athens redeveloped its airport and Barcelona enjoyed a meteoric leap into the number-one spot for European city breaks.
In London, TFL will be working around the clock to show the city’s public transport in its best (though probably still slightly grubby) light, and on a basic level it’s good to see former wasteland being turned into much-needed housing and commercial property.
The hope that the Games will bring instant wealth to a landlord, developer or neighbourhood, though, is ill-founded. In fact it has been said, ‘I have never seen anyone get rich from the Olympic games. If you want to do that, buy a lottery ticket.’
While property in East London will be in demand from ticketholders during the Games, it is argued that most foreign visitors would stay in the already developed p areas of London.
