Going for GOLD! How east London homes have shot up in value since 2012 Olympics with price of properties in Waltham Forest more than DOUBLING

• Average house prices in East London have shot up since the capital hosted the 2012 Olympic Games
• All six Olympic host boroughs have witnessed house prices rise by more than both London and UK average
• Waltham Forest recorded biggest increase, with a staggering 106 per cent uplift in prices (£487,133) there 
• Barking and Dagenham recorded 86 per cent increase in prices (£308,760), according to analysis

Average house prices in East London have shot up since the capital hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, with the value of properties in host borough Waltham Forest more than doubling in nearly a decade.

All six Olympic host boroughs – Newham, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham – have witnessed house prices rise by more than both the London and UK average, according to analysis by Nationwide Building Society. 

Waltham Forest recorded the biggest increase, with a staggering 106 per cent uplift in prices (£487,133) there since 2012. Barking and Dagenham recorded an 86 per cent increase in prices (£308,760) while the value of homes in Hackney shot up by 66 per cent (£553,032).

Greenwich and Tower Hamlets also recorded similar spikes in house prices of 66 per cent (£400,216) and 63 per cent (£474,144) respectively – rising more than the London average of 61 per cent (£497,948) and the UK average of 49 per cent (£254,624) in the past nine years.  

Andrew Harvey, senior economist at Nationwide, said the London Games saw extensive redevelopment of brownfield sites in and around Stratford to create the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as well as significant improvements to the transport infrastructure serving the area.

The southern edge of Waltham Forest includes a section of the Olympic Park containing the Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockney and Tennis Centre. Newham was at the centre of the 2012 Games, with Stratford seeing major redevelopment.

Mr Harvey said: ‘With the Tokyo Olympic Games now in full swing, we’ve analysed how house prices have fared across the six host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Average house prices in East London have shot up since the capital hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, with the value of properties in host borough Waltham Forest more than doubling in nearly a decade. All six Olympic host boroughs – Newham, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham – have witnessed house prices rise by more than both the London and UK average, according to analysis by Nationwide Building Society

Andrew Harvey, senior economist at Nationwide, said the London Games saw extensive redevelopment of brownfield sites in and around Stratford to create the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as well as significant improvements to the transport infrastructure serving the area

A property in Waltham Forest, which recorded the biggest increase, with a staggering 106 per cent uplift in prices (£487,133) there since 2012

A living room in a property in Waltham Forest, which has recorded an uptick in house prices since the London Games

A bedroom in a property in Waltham Forest, where house prices have risen by a staggering 106 per cent in nearly a decade

A home in Tower Hamlets, where the average house price is £474,144 – up 63 per cent since 2012

A bedroom in a house in Tower Hamlets, where house prices have risen on average by nearly two-thirds in nearly a decade

A bathroom in a Tower Hamlets property, where average house prices are higher than in 2012

A house in Barking, where house prices have risen by 86 per cent since the 2012 Olympics

A room used as living space in a property in Barking, which has recorded a surge in average house prices in the past nine years

A bathroom in a property in Barking, which has benefitted from investment and infrastructure projects in East London following the Olympics

A home in Hackney, where average house prices have increased by 66 per cent since 2012

A bedroom in a property in Hackney, near where the Olympic Games were hosted nearly a decade ago

A living room in a property in Hackney, where the average house price is £553,032

A garden in a Hackney property, where house prices have risen markedly in the years since the London Games

‘The London Games saw extensive redevelopment of brownfield sites in and around Stratford to create the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as well as significant improvements to the transport infrastructure serving the area.

‘The top performing area was Waltham Forest, where average house prices have more than doubled since 2012. This compares with a 61 per cent average increase in London over the same period and 49 per cent across the UK overall.

‘The southern edge of the borough includes a section of the Olympic Park containing the Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockney and Tennis Centre, but the main residential areas in the borough are Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford.

‘Barking and Dagenham and Newham have also seen significantly stronger growth than the London average, with prices increasing by 86 per cent and 81 per cent respectively. Newham was at the centre of the 2012 Games, with Stratford seeing major redevelopment and infrastructure investment.’ 

People have been looking to move out of big cities into suburban or rural areas due to the work-from-home revolution amid the pandemic. However, all that could change if people are persuaded or compelled to return to offices as they would have to commute. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is now highlighting the benefits of young people being in the workplace, telling LinkedIn News that it was ‘really beneficial’ being in an office at the start of his career.   

Since July 19 the Government has no longer been instructing employees to work from home in England and guidance published online says it ‘expects and recommends a gradual return over the summer’. 

A house in Newham, where the average price of a home has risen by more than 80 per cent since 2012

A home in Greenwich, where the average house price has increased by 66 per cent since the London Olympics

A living room in a home in Greenwich, where the average house price is £400,216

A living room in a home in Greenwich, where the average house price is £400,216

A garden in a home in Greenwich, which has benefitted in wider infrastructure projects and investments in East London since the 2012 Games

But people could be prompted to remain in the cities if they fear losing their jobs to cheaper overseas. It comes after a report in June revealed that two-thirds of UK firms plan to outsource the same or more of their IT services within the next two years. 

A third of those companies (33 per cent) plan an increase to their outsourcing over that period, the survey of more than 250 British businesses found. Manufacturing and chemical firms, and those in the financial industry, are the most likely to move more or all of their IT services out-of-house, according to the report.

Reducing costs was given as the main reason for outsourcing, the survey found.   

The outsourcing survey, by Whitelane Research and PA Consulting, found that 65 per cent of respondents plan to outsource at the same rate or more in the next two years. One third (33 per cent) said they were planning to outsource more of their business.

However 16 per cent of organisations said they were planning to outsource less, meaning the amount of companies planning to up their outsourcing in the next two years is around 17 per cent net.

By industry, the manufacturing and chemicals sector (59 per cent), and the financial services sector (46 per cent), are planning to increase outsourcing the most. Cost reduction was cited as the number one driver for businesses to outsource, with 66 per cent listing it as their reason.

Manish Khandelwal, IT Transformation expert at PA Consulting, said the pandemic had been a key driver in companies increasingly turning to outsourcing and that expected the demand to ‘increase post-Covid’.    

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