Live in an Olympic Superstar’s Apartment: London’s East Village Opens
The first families have already started moving in to East Village, Stratford. People who tuned in to watch the 2012 London Olympic Games will be familiar with the network of high-rise flats purpose-built for the thousands of athletes who descended on London to compete in the next door stadium and aquatics centre.
Now, after one year of renovation, the flats are now ready for people to make them their forever home. Although there is no way of finding out whether your new home has accommodated a legendary sprinter or a famous cyclist, the architecture and the contemporary relevance of the site makes East Village one of London’s most exciting new housing developments.
Construction of Olympic Park, London – April 2012, photo by EG Focus
The tagline for the new area is “London’s newest neighbourhood”, intended to engender a sense of community and togetherness. The Olympic games notoriously ruffled the feathers of many of the area’s original residents, whose homes were moved to make way for the Olympic Park.
There are now 2,800 flats ready for new occupants, supposedly priced to be accessible to the average Londoner. The company that manages most of the homes, Triathlon, have said they intend that all of the homes will be rented or part owned, with the initial release of houses given over to local authorities to nominate those they consider on the priority list for housing.
The entire Olympic site was built with long term usage in mind. The flats were always intended to become a home for ordinary people. Once new residents are installed they find themselves in the middle of an area that is going to become a first-class centre for sports.
A sports academy is being built in the area adjacent to the flats, and major sports clubs are expected to make the Olympic Stadium their permanent training grounds. Many of the buildings in the area will be open to the public. Could this be the regeneration that ordinary East Londoners have been promised for so long?
Final Construction of Olympic Park, London – (April 2012), photo by EG Focus
The rental prices are said to be at an affordable 20% or 30% lower than homes on the mainstream housing market. Rent for a one-bedroom flat is £315 a month, while rent for a multi person apartment is about £500 a month. There are currently 45 residents newly installed in the housing development, some who are using the flat as a second home as they commute to London from the other end of the country.
Who eventually end up using the flats and what the eventual character of the area will be, will be very interesting to watch. Already, some of the streets in the area have been renamed to reflect what the higher-ups are hoping will be a success for the area, with road names incorporating words like “prize” and “celebration”.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has said that the East Village housing development is one of the most important parts of the so-called “Olympic legacy”. Do you fancy living in one of the newly renovated apartments?
Source: http://www.freshlawsolicitors.co.uk
See also: East Village London on Buildington
