Evening Standard: Peter Bill on Property: "Housing supply grows as demand falls… how suburban"

Link

Forget central London sales hype, the price of new homes in the outer boroughs fell 8% in 2011. No wonder: work began on 23,000 new homes last year, mostly in the suburbs. More than 16,000 remained unsold in January.

"The statistics are six months old. But London Residential Research makes 6000 site visits a year, to peer behind the sales boards at the real picture. It takes it a while to tot up the stats for its annual Red Book, out this month. This contains an even scarier number: 236,363. That’s the number of units planned, or with planning permission.

"Within that number lies the scariest figure of all: 50,000 — how many units are planned within a mile of so of the Olympic park. Demand is weak. Yet supply goes from strength to strength. Be afraid.