I came across an interesting info-graphic via Reddit's /r/dataisbeautiful that describes London house prices per square foot (by postcode) that can be found here. It seems that only homes/flats for sale were considered in the chart; from what I could tell the data do not include rentable property. It would be interesting to see how a similar graphic would compare to what we see with rising prices in the Big Smoke.
With my limited understanding of socioeconomic history in London, it may interest some to observe significant developments on the East End of the city - transitioning from a home to mostly immigrant working class families to a mixed community with a growing banking industry in Canary Wharf.
Some cite foreign money as a primary source for the general rise in housing prices itself, but that likely does not explain the whole story (or even much of it). As published by The Guardian, a recent LSE study discusses the unintended consequences of land-use regulation and discriminatory zoning rules. Laws that limit how high construction companies can build their ceilings effectively limit population growth and crowd out would-be residents to neighborhoods further from the city.
There clearly is not a problem with demand for housing in or around London, but there certainly is an issue with how housing is supplied. Curbing back on "urban development" laws would be a start at making life more affordable in the great global city I was so fortunate to spend half a year in already.
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