Brexit wipes 14pc off value of Earls Court redevelopment
THE value of a major redevelopment of the Earls Court exhibition centre in London has been written down by 14pc after the vote to leave the EU.
Capital & Counties (Capco), the developer behind the £8bn project, said while it continues to make “positive progress” with the site, the last quarter of trading had been “characterised by uncertainty in the London market as a whole”. This caused the value of the land to decrease from £1.4bn in December to £1.2bn on June 30, a drop of 14pc.
Despite the fall in the value of the site itself, the expected sale prices for thousands of homes on the site is not expected to be affected, Ian Hawksworth, chief executive of Capco, said.
The first homes at Lillie Square, part of the residential component of the Earls Court site, are expected to be completed later this year, and Capco said 59pc of the first tranche of homes in the second phase have already been sold at prices 4pc higher than in the first phase.
“There’s a lot of interest in the market, and we’ve had a very active period for sales,” Mr Hawksworth said. “As we got closer to [the vote], people put off making decisions, but we’ve sold four flats since June 23.
“We are expecting things to be slower compared with 2014 and 2015, but there is still demand for what Lillie Square offers – a really good product in the right location.”
He added that the total number of homes which could eventually be developed on the site could be as high as 10,000.
“We have an existing planning permission for 7,500 new homes, but we’ve just suggested to the Greater London Authority that it could accommodate 10,000 homes and we want to play a role in providing as many homes as possible in London,” he said.