Greenwich Peninsula: first-time buyer flats for sale in south-east London, home to the capital's 'most exciting regeneration zone'

Pirates used to be hanged on gibbets there, but now Greenwich Peninsula is truly London’s most exciting regeneration zone.

With an £8.4 billion budget, a 1.6-mile swathe of waterfront and the potential for almost 16,000 new homes to be built over the next 15 years, North Greenwich is happening fast.

And now first-time buyers will be able to get in on the action with the opportunity to buy a flat from just over £100,000.

The peninsula, best known as the location of the O2 Centre, was originally a swampy piece of marshland that was drained in the 16th century to be used as farmland.

“North Greenwich” describes its location in the borough but the northernmost tip of the peninsula, Blackwall Point, has a longer and deeply grisly history.

The rotting corpses of pirates caught along the Thames were left hanging there as a deterrent to other seafaring scoundrels.

Later the peninsula became an important industrial centre, first used to store gunpowder (until local residents’ protests), then to build boats, mill oil, make cement, and produce asbestos.

In the Victorian era it became a vast gasworks, but after the Second World War the peninsula gradually declined until the Nineties when the Government spotted its potential for housebuilding.

In 2013, developer Knight Dragon bought a 150-acre chunk of land there, making it by far the site’s biggest player.

Since then the announcements have come thick and fast: a crown-shaped building by world-famous architect Santiago Calatrava to house everything from a cinema and shops to an indoor “urban forest”; a purpose-built “design district” for London’s creative industries; two schools; a film studio and — of course — flats.

A quarter of new homes on the site will be affordable and aimed at cash-strapped buyers and renters who could otherwise not afford to join this brave new world between Greenwich Millennium Village and the O2.

Housing association L&Q is offering some of the earliest of these homes, on a site close to the Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park and a short walk from North Greenwich station in Zone 2 on the Jubilee line.

Prices for a one-bedroom flat at L&Q @ Greenwich Peninsula start at £110,000 for a 25 per cent share of a home worth £440,000. Buyers will need a minimum deposit of £11,000. They will need to budget for monthly rent of £550, and mortgage repayments of around £438, as well as service charges.

Two-bedroom flats start from £143,750 for a 25 per cent share of a flat with a full market value £575,000. Monthly costs will include rent at £791 and mortgage repayments estimated at £573.

Buyers will need to already live or work within Greenwich, Southwark, Bexley, Lewisham or Bromley.

WHAT ELSE CAN I BUY?

If you’ve a couple of million to spend you could pick up a penthouse with splendid river views at Greenwich Peninsula.

No? In that case buyers looking for an SE10 address need to look away from the splashy riverfront and closer to the “neck” of the peninsula, between the station and the older-school charms of Greenwich.

Hamptons International has a two-bedroom flat in Sir Walter Raleigh Court, in Banning Street, half a mile from Maze Hill railway station and an easy walk from the Thames Riverside Path, listed for £400,000.

For the same budget you could opt for a new one-bedroom flat. Life Residential is selling a one-bedroom apartment at Platinum Riverside, Bessemer Place, with great views, for £445,000.