Transport good for property

On 12 January, London’s Evening Standard’s property supplement made great play of the benefits to potential new home buyers of new transport links in the capital. “Where railway lines go, home buyers turn up. One live project is the Northern line extension from Kennington to Battersea, opening in 2020. It [Kennington] has been gentrifying for decades but hasn’t reached the heights of fashionability. However, the Northern line spur may accelerate its popularity.”

The Standard also observed that the River Thames is becoming more important as a transport link. “With a record number of Londoners getting to work by boat, mayor Sadiq Khan plans to expand riverbus services beyond Woolwich,” it said. “Almost a million people a year commute along the Thames, and 11 new piers are planned to cope with the growing demand. This will open up the service to thousands more commuters from as far afield as Barking and Dartford.”

The Crossrail project is also deemed worthy of several mentions, with such hitherto ‘humble’ areas as Abbey Wood in the east and Southall in the west described as “Crossrail hotspots”, for example.