CB Richard Ellis names four London “hotspots”

A new report by CB Richard Ellis has highlighted four groups of “hotspots” in London that will benefit from the proposed planning policy framework and transport infrastructure changes that aim to enhance the capital’s “World City” status.

Grouped together under the four headings Strategic Ring, Expanding Fringe, Peripheral Nodes and Suburban Risers, the report notes that the proposed changes have the potential to generate sizeable shifts in the accessibility and value of certain areas.

Two key elements in the proposed planning policy framework are the desire to protect the heritage characteristics of parts of the West End, and to support the cluster of high-level financial functions focused on the City and Canary Warf.

The scheme hopes that the natural clustering tendencies of many central London occupiers will limit the scope for wholesale market restructuring and encourage them to drift west and for City tenants to drift east.

The Strategic Ring includes areas near major international railway stations such as Kings Cross, Paddington and Euston. This will in turn result in a physical expansion of the core of central London’s commercial area.

The second group, Expanding Fringe consists of locations near established commercial areas such as the fringe of the City and the Docklands financial districts.

Areas such as Stratford, White City, Elephant and Castle in the Peripheral Nodes group are currently not so well linked with the core of the city and will therefore benefit greatly from the proposed transport scheme.

The Suburban Risers, mainly Croydon and Uxbridge as well as the less established Wembley and Ilford will see more marginal benefits as a result of the scheme.

In the long term the report found there will be pressure for a second wave of high density developments in core locations in response to the competitive threat from new emerging areas and continued growth in the capital’s economy.