Demand for flats fuels Olympic project

Next month the London Legacy Development Corporation, headed by Boris Johnson, will put forward a planning application for East Wick, close to Hackney Marshes, and Sweetwater, in Tower Hamlets, two of the five new neighbourhoods planned for the former Olympic Park. The development will include 1,500 flats and family-sized houses, two primary schools and a selection of shops across the two sites.

“The East Wick development was anticipated to be delivered by the late 2020s,” said a report by Hackney council. “However the intention is to bring this forward with development commencing in late 2015 and completing in the early 2020s.”

It is expected that the LLDC will select a developer for the scheme later this year. Around 30 per cent of the homes at East Wick will be affordable and aimed at first-time buyers. However it has also emerged it is “exploring the opportunity” of offering about half the private homes on the site to rent rather than buy.

Eventually there will be up to 7,000 properties built across the Olympic site. Homes at the first phase, Chobham Manor in Newham, are being built on the site of the basketball arena and will go on sale later this year.