Property tax system at center of New London's problems

As I witness New London's budgetary struggles it makes me think, "What ever happened to property tax reform?"

For years property tax reform was the big thing in Connecticut's public policy debates. Editorial pages, including this one, demanded it. Lawmakers said they would champion it. But like many big, difficult issues, the discussion never moved much beyond the rhetoric and the reports.

When the Great Recession hit and the state confronted an historic budget crisis, suddenly no one was talking about property tax reform. The state could not pay its own bills, never mind figure out how to assume more of the expenses from towns and cities so they could lower the property tax burden.

I thought about this because New London's fiscal problems are, most fundamentally, the result of Connecticut's property tax system. Though small by city standards, New London has all the expenses that come with being an urban center. It needs a paid fire department to protect its densely developed neighborhoods, many filled with older housing. It needs a paid police force to assure adequate public safety.

New London has a lot of public housing. Like most urban centers, a larger percentage of its populous is low-income as compared with its suburban neighbors, requiring more public services. These same demographics provide an additional challenge for its public school system.

The primary means to pay for these services is the property tax system, which is a lousy choice for New London. With about 5.5-square-miles of land, there is not enough property to tax. The city has no industrial park and no where to develop one. Its commercial real estate is relatively small. Trying to create more commercial property to tax was the motivation for razing an old neighborhood in the Fort Trumbull section to make way for redevelopment. That didn't work out well.

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Canary Wharf owner says demand for high end London offices hit by economic crisis

Songbird Estates, the property group behind Canary Wharf in London, said it hoped the 2012 Olympics would put its developments into the spotlight and encourage more businesses to move to the Docklands development.

However it admitted the current economic crisis meant demand for high grade office space across London had been falling, but it said it was in a strong position to take advantage when the situation improves. It said:

Euro and eurozone uncertainty overshadowed the year. Demand and supply were therefore both relatively constrained in the London market. However, though there was a greater level of fragility in the real estate office marekt in the last months of 2011, London remains perceived as a relatively safe haven for real estate investors.

The transfer of Shell employees and the phased movement of JP Morgan staff to Canary Wharf in 2012 means the development will have more than 100,000 workers for the first time.

Songbird said the impact on Canary Wharf's retail operations from the opening of the nearby Westfield shopping centre at Stratford had been muted so far.

In its full year figures, Songbird said its net asset value had climbed to 190p compared with 187p. Underlying profit fell to £4.6m from £28.8m, partly due to reduced rental income after the sale of two properties and partly as a result of a reduction in income from lease surrenders (including a £495m sale to JP Morgan in December 2010.)

Property developers learn from London's dukes and earls

(Reuters) - A record number of London developers looking to build bespoke neighbourhoods from scratch will be emulating the success of centuries-old aristocratic landowning dynasties who have helped transform the capital city in the past 50 years.

Developments like the 67-acre scheme in the King's Cross district and a 2,818-home plan for the Olympics site are among a dozen projects that have taken lessons from the likes of Grosvenor and Cadogan Estates, areas formed hundreds of years ago that have boosted property values in recent decades by being picky with tenants and improving public areas.

"Everyone increasingly realises that design and maintenance of the environment around the buildings is as likely to improve property values as anything else," said Sir Terry Farrell, who designed a 77-acre masterplan of shops, offices and homes in the Earls Court district of west London that will be ready in 2032.

"There is a much stronger move towards estate management, the kind of custodianship the great estates have done extremely well," he told Reuters.

South London Real Estate Attracting New Wave Of Investors

Low-maintenance living and cultural riches make London appealing to the new wave of empty-nesters. Once overshadowed by prime locales in Central and West London , the city's South Bank is also becoming a favorite of overseas investors — especially from the Middle East. See the following article from Property Wire for more on this.

London property market
Parents who swapped London for the Home Counties a generation ago in order to raise their children are heading back to the capital city, according to property consultants Cluttons.

With their children having left home for good and prices in some areas of London at a more affordable level than they have been for several years, Cluttons has seen an upturn in middle-age-to-retiree homebuyers looking to return to the buzz of a London lifestyle.