Thousands of homes could be built on London rooftops, says study

Property developers in Greenwich and Lewisham could be sitting on a land with scope to build nearly 19,000 more homes, a new study has claimed.

Apex Airspace Development, a firm that specialises in building homes above existing ones or above stations, shops and car parks, estimates that 33,900 new apartments could be created in inner London using space on rooftops.

It has identified that Greenwich has the biggest opportunity, followed by Lewisham.

Other boroughs that could have more built above, include Islington (3,380 homes) and Camden (4,960).

Apex’s founder Arshad Bhatti said: “All week at Mipim one common theme has been London’s housing shortage. We need to start being more imaginative and making better use of existing space. That includes looking at more modular construction techniques that minimise disruption and build affordable homes.”

Nearly 200,000 square feet at the 22 Bishopsgate tower will be made available for small businesses and start-ups, the building’s owner has revealed.

Construction on the 1.3 billion-square-foot skyscraper is due to complete next year. The skyscraper — which will feature London’s first climbing window — replaces a project called the Pinnacle which was halted when funding dried up.

Isabelle Scemama, boss of the building’s new owner, Axa Investment Managers — Real Assets, said her firm plans to put 15% of the space aside for co-working offices which could be run either by Axa or a serviced offices business.

Scemama told the Evening Standard at the Mipim property conference: “It makes sense to have some flexible space because there is strong demand from younger companies that want to be in the heart of the City, but don’t want to commit to long leases.”

Also at Mipim, flexible offices firm Citibase said it plans to quadruple its London sites over the next two years. It currently has nine in the capital.

According to agent JLL, current demand from flexible office firms for new space in London totals 900,000 square feet.

JLL’s Dan Burn said: “Flexible offices and traditional leasing can co-exist.”