Building flats on London car parks could solve housing crisis, report suggests

Housing crisis: Car parks could make way for flats
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Hundreds of suburban London car parks close to commuter stations should be built on to help solve the housing crisis, a report argues today.

Researchers at property agents JLL have identified a total of 868 car parks within a mile of a Tube or rail stop that could support an average of 90 new homes each.

The report claims that with car ownership set to plummet in London over coming decades releasing these plots of land in key locations “could provide a solution” to the capital’s desperate housing shortage.

Around half the parking lots identified by JLL are owned by local authorities with 45 in Bromley alone, 30 in Havering, 28 in Hillingdon and 27 in Croydon.

Developing them for housing would ease the pressure to build on green land in the struggle to hit Sadiq Khan’s updated target of 66,000 new homes a year.

Most of the car parks identfied are in outer London areas where councils have struggled to find sites suitable for large numbers of new homes.

Housing crisis: Sadiq Khan has a target of building 66,000 homes

Soaring land prices mean that many in central London have already been sold to developers, although typically for luxury rather than affordable housing.

The 0.83 acre former Moxon Street car park in Marylebone was bought by developer Ridgeford in 2013 and is being turned into 79 homes and 11 shops and restaurants with enough space for 95 cars in a new subterranean lot.

Nick Whitten, residential research director at JLL, said: “London’s rapid population growth has been driven by young professionals, students and recent graduates choosing to live close to employment hubs and cultural and entertainment quarters.

“However, this trend towards urban living has disproportionately put a strain on London’s local authorities to allocate sites for residential development – typically in areas where land is unavailable.

“JLL’s research suggests car parks could provide a solution. We have identified just under 900 car parks in the Capital that are all within close proximity of existing rail or tube stations which could accommodate up to 80,000 new homes.”

A report from the OECD earlier this year forecast that car ownership could fall by 90 per cent as traditional car ownership is replaced by hiring self driving cars. A spokesman for Bromley council said car parks were needed in outer London boroughs because of the lack of local public transport compared to central London and to stop drivers dumping their cars in residential streets.

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