The capital's largest building sites

London's largest remaining single tract of former industrial land. Now part of the Thames Gateway "growth area" stretching from Tower Bridge to Thurrock and Bexley. More than 800 homes are already built at Barking Reach, with more on the way.

Size: 200 hectares.

Number of homes planned: 10,700 in stages.

Pros: Barking & Dagenham is London's second-cheapest borough. According to figures from Rightmove, the average property price in June 2003 was £179,571.

Cons: hemmed in between the Thames to the south and the A13 to the north. Developers are exploring proposals to extend the DLR to Dagenham Dock from Beckton, which would improve poor transport links.

Millennium Dome site, Greenwich Peninsula

Land including the former coach park next to the eerily silent Dome at the top of the Greenwich Peninsula. Has been in the pipeline for years waiting for a decision about the future of the Dome.

Size: 77 hectares.

Number of new homes planned: 10,000, plus shops, offices, 630-room hotel, leisure facilities including the conversion of the Dome to a sports, entertainment and conference arena. Permission has been granted.

Pros: close to the river and a quick Jubilee line ride to Canary Wharf and on to Bankside and the West End.

Cons: Greenwich centre and shops are a short car journey or bus ride away.

Stratford Rail Land

A tangle of railway lines and derelict industrial land just west of Stratford in east London. London's second-biggest stretch of brownfield land after Barking Reach. Development has been held up awaiting a decision on the Channel Tunnel rail link to King's Cross.

Size: 120 hectares

No of homes: 4,500, plus a 2,000-bedroom hotel, shops and offices. Planning applications have already been lodged.

Pros: excellent transport links (Tubes, trains, DLR, buses - you name it); close to existing shops and leisure facilities in Stratford, which has benefited from millions of pounds of regeneration money; located in Newham, London's third-cheapest borough, one of only a handful where prices are still rising month-on-month according to experts Rightmove.

Cons: some parts of Stratford remain pretty dreary.