Hong Kong-style: east London’s new “vertical village” in Canary Wharf has shared ownership homes from £138,000

A short stroll from Canary Wharf and awaiting Crossrail’s arrival, Millharbour flats start at £138k.

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Ruth Bloomfield13 December 2018

Millharbour Quarter is the final significant piece of the Canary Wharf jigsaw that began in the Eighties when the regeneration of London’s historic docks got under way.

This project on the Isle of Dogs will one day be home to some 4,000 Londoners, living in a new cluster of skyscrapers within an easy walk of Canary Wharf’s offices, shops, bars and restaurants, and getting Crossrail services to the City and West End from next year.

First-time buyers and lovers of the apartment life can buy into Millharbour from less than a third of the price of a typical London first-time home — currently running at £420,000 — with a share in a flat at Able Quay, from housing association Notting Hill Genesis.

Able Quay is within Harbour Central, which in turn is part of the £1 billion Millharbour Quarter scheme by design-savvy Irish housebuilder Ballymore, backed by the Hong Kong-based Sun Hung Kai Properties.

From £138,000: 30 per cent of a one-bedroom flat at Able Quay, Millharbour Quarter

Alamy Stock Photo

It is being billed as a Hong Kong-style “vertical village” featuring its own shops, offices, leisure facilities, schools and about 1,500 new homes in a series of towers of up to 41 storeys set around landscaped squares and parks.

The site is beside Marsh Wall and Millwall Inner Dock, and a 10-minute walk from Canary Wharf.

Prices start from £138,000 for a 30 per cent share of a one-bedroom apartment with a full market value of £460,000.

“This part of east London has seen robust price growth over the last few years, having seen extensive regeneration,” says Jim Munson, head of marketing at Notting Hill Genesis.

“With Crossrail services due to start in 2019, it will only further increase the popularity of this district, making the homes here a fantastic prospect for buyers with an eye on the future.”

WHAT ELSE CAN I BUY IN E14?

While prices in London generally are flagging, E14’s worth is still on the up.

Latest Rightmove figures show a typical flat nestled in this meander of the River Thames, which incorporates Poplar, Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs, stands at almost £500,000, up from £450,000 two years ago.

This increase is driven by glitzy new flats around Canary Wharf. The most expensive flat on sale now in the area is a four-bedroom penthouse at Baltimore Wharf, by Galliard Homes, with a price tag of £3.95 million.

However, for first-time buyers with more limited resources, it is more than possible to find a starter home in E14 for a tenth of that sum.

At Forge Square, on the Isle of Dogs and close to Mudchute DLR station, Knight Frank is selling a smart one-bedroom flat for £400,000. Call 020 8012 4550.

For more floor space for your money, look north of Canary Wharf to a two-bedroom flat in a modern block at Frances Wharf, close to Limehouse, for sale with Dexters for £400,000. Call 020 7650 5350.

The best value is to be found in Poplar — Call the Midwife country — where you could buy a one-bedroom flat from about £300,000, and a two-bedroom flat for about £400,000.

Dexters has a modern flat in the contemporary Parkview Apartments, Chrisp Street, for £325,000. Call 020 7517 1199.

And Morgan Randall is listing a newly refurbished two-bedroom flat in Stoneyard Lane for £385,000. Call 020 8012 0793.