Q. Given the sales market is so high right now I am thinking it may be time to sell my investment in Canary Wharf as I have seen some fairly substantial capital growth since I purchased a few years ago. Do you think it’s time to sell and reinvest in another up and coming area or do you think it’s still worth sticking around?
A. Personally I think you should not even consider selling your investment right now – even though your observations are right and we have hit some pretty crazy levels on pricing around the wharf I believe there is still plenty more growth in your investment to come. You only need to look at all the new developments set to be built over the next few years some estimated 9,853 are already planned bringing another 19,000 inhabitants into the area. And that’s without the Wood Wharf development that was approved in July which will bring another 3,600 properties into the area. There are also several other sites in and around the wharf which if they too were to get planning permission could in fact triple the total to 37,000 people. With all this development our thoughts turn to transport and of course Crossrail is the most exciting thing to happen on the transport front in a very long time. The ‘final push’ begins on Crossrail train tunnels, now 87% complete, from Whitechapel towards Farringdon Crossrail’s train tunnels in Docklands and southeast London are now structurally complete, following the breakthrough by tunnel machine Ellie at Victoria Dock Portal in east London. Simon Wright, Crossrail’s Programme Director said: “The end is in sight for Crossrail’s tunnelling marathon. Having successfully delivered all bored tunnels west of Farringdon and east of Whitechapel, we now begin the final push to complete tunnelling at Farringdon next year. The next challenge is to fit out the tunnels and stations with systems to run Crossrail trains through central London in 2018.” With such great things in the pipeline for this fabulous area I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what’s in store for you if you commit to hanging in there for the long term with capital growth set to exceed all expectations.