Bulletin

What will London’s housing market look like In 30 years? Will the current generation of twenty somethings become a nation of renters? Will property prices have quadrupled? Of course no-one has a crystal ball but we try to answer some of these questions below.

The trend over the past few years across the capital has been an involuntary tenure shift away from owner occupation towards private renting. It is predicted that there will be an additional 1.8 million private rented households across the UK by 2025 continuing an overall trend in which the proportion of private rented tenure housing has doubled to around 20% since 1981.

The current shift in tenure has resulted from a lack of affordability, of which the main indicator, house price to earnings ratio, has now reached unprecedented levels in several parts of the capital. The problems are all too apparent, on the supply side we are not building enough new homes and in addition as a result of an ageing population the number of existing houses that come on the market for sale each year have almost halved to just over a million since the late 1980’s. On the demand side our island's population is growing, the last time there were this many people living in London was in 1939. This leads to a trend of migration out of the centre and price growth further afield where barriers to entry are lower. The likelihood is that the proportion of private tenure housing will continue to diminish across the capital in the long term, and that property that is privately owned will become increasingly debt free.

Not all of the effects from becoming a nation of renters however will be negative, we believe that multi-generational households may mean that elderly are better cared for and we will become a more family oriented altruistic society. We also believe that a growing population will act as a catalyst driving vital infrastructure projects across metropolitan areas where London’s boundaries have continued expanding.

The following are data excerpted from GOOD Magazine which has dissected the worlds 7 billion people into one hundred to highlight inequalities in wealth, population distribution, access to clean water and to education. Below are some of the salient statistics:

1. 60 people would live in Asia exceeding the number of people living in Europe, Africa & the Americas combined by a margin of 10 people.

2. There would only be five native English speakers, one less than the number of Spanish speakers and less than half the number of mandarin speakers (these account for around 12 people). The 70 people that do not speak Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic speak around 6,500 languages between them.

3. Less than 20 people would be older than 55 and over 25 people would be younger than 14. More startlingly only 13 people have no access to clean water, 14 people are unable to read and write, 23 people have no shelter, 25 have no phones, 56 people have no internet access & 71 people earn less than $10 a day. Only 1 person makes more than $90 a day & controls 50% of global wealth.

A trio of first rate, typically London, Art happenings are about to spring up on us.

From today, you can preview the annual Royal College of Art, fund-raising exhibition, Secret.

You can then buy an original Art postcard for £55 but you are only able to find out who the artist is after you have

bought it! Some of those who have contributed a postcard include Jeremy Deller, Steve McQueen and Damon Albarn.

From Tuesday 12th April, until the end of the summer, Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979, is on exhibition at the

grand Tate Britain on Millbank. Showcasing the super-radical thinkers and pioneers without whom there would be no

Damien Hirst.

Also don't miss Joanthan Meades' show just started at our very own Londonewcastle Project Space.