5 ms·

This is also a thing in London where certain views towards St Pauls Cathedral are protected.

by gelert 5y ago

cm2187 5y ago
London isn't exactly a model of urban planning. There is a massive shortage of housing. And you end up with all new developments concentrated in a handful of areas.
- wayanon 5y ago
  I agree but if 100,000 homes became available tomorrow in London they’d sell in an instant. I don’t think any number will solve it - the problem is existing homes not being lived in and being used as income.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    How many homes in London are empty? Numbers I see are in the region of 25,000, out of 3.6 million, under 1%.
    - bmilleare 5y ago
      It would be more interesting to see those numbers in square footage and not straight counts. I would expect the majority of the 'empty' homes are the £10M+ ones in Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington etc.
      - iso1210 5y ago
        Offices and hotels far more empty square footage
  - barry-cotter 5y ago
    You could fit 59 Manhattans in the London Green Belt. Manhattan has 1.6 million residents. The problem is not building.
  - dionidium 5y ago
    There is no evidence that this is a significant issue affecting housing prices in high-demand metros. Lack of supply is a much more straightforward and verifiable explanation. The spooky-outside-investor meme is conspiratorial nonsense and it’s beneath this forum.
    - carpedimebagjoe 5y ago
      Sorry, but you're spouting nonsense without knowing the facts. In the US alone, there are over 17 million vacant residential properties. Average un-occupancy rates for urban areas run 10%. That is more than plenty to house every homeless and very poor person. There ought to be massive taxes on urban vacation, vacant housing, and entirely airbnb properties to encourage utilization by those who require housing rather than being hoarded/exploited by those who use them for recreational/investment purposes.
      - dionidium 5y ago
        Unfortunately, like everybody involved in the housing space, I’ve of course heard this claim about millions of vacant homes many times. It’s a notoriously silly take. Most vacant homes covered by that statistic are either 1) uninhabitable shells in low-demand rust-belt metros; or 2) houses that are for sale or between tenants. A small percentage of them are second homes. And while you could of course raise taxes on those homes (a policy I’d probably support in some form), it’s unlikely that it’d have much of an impact on the overall problem.
- carpedimebagjoe 5y ago
  And iceberg mansions. The neighbors really love those.
playpause 5y ago
The Guardian did an interesting interactive story a few years ago on how these 'viewing corridors' are affecting the skyline: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/11/city-of-london-skyline-of-tomorrow-interactive https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/11/city-of...
samizdis 5y ago
Not just towards St Paul's, but also to the Palace of Westminster. See the City of London's "Protected views and tall buildings" planning docs [1] and the section "Protected vistas in London" in the Wikipedia page Protected View [2]. Also, see the Wikipedia page on Greenwich Hospital, London [3]: An early controversy arose when it emerged that the original plans for the hospital would have blocked the riverside view from the Queen's House. Queen Mary II therefore ordered that the buildings be split, providing an avenue leading from the river through the hospital grounds up to the Queen's House and Greenwich Hill beyond. The resulting effect is displayed well in this contemporary pic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naval_College.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naval_College.JPG [1] https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-policy/protected-views-and-tall-buildings https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-p... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_view https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_view [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Hospital,_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Hospital,_London

This is also a thing in London where certain views towards St Pauls Cathedral are protected.

by gelert 5y ago

This is also a thing in London where certain views towards St Pauls Cathedral are protected.

London isn't exactly a model of urban planning. There is a massive shortage of housing. And you end up with all new developments concentrated in a handful of areas.

wayanon 5y ago
I agree but if 100,000 homes became available tomorrow in London they’d sell in an instant. I don’t think any number will solve it - the problem is existing homes not being lived in and being used as income.
- iso1210 5y ago
  How many homes in London are empty? Numbers I see are in the region of 25,000, out of 3.6 million, under 1%.
  - bmilleare 5y ago
    It would be more interesting to see those numbers in square footage and not straight counts. I would expect the majority of the 'empty' homes are the £10M+ ones in Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington etc.
    - iso1210 5y ago
      Offices and hotels far more empty square footage
- barry-cotter 5y ago
  You could fit 59 Manhattans in the London Green Belt. Manhattan has 1.6 million residents. The problem is not building.
- dionidium 5y ago
  There is no evidence that this is a significant issue affecting housing prices in high-demand metros. Lack of supply is a much more straightforward and verifiable explanation. The spooky-outside-investor meme is conspiratorial nonsense and it’s beneath this forum.
  - carpedimebagjoe 5y ago
    Sorry, but you're spouting nonsense without knowing the facts. In the US alone, there are over 17 million vacant residential properties. Average un-occupancy rates for urban areas run 10%. That is more than plenty to house every homeless and very poor person. There ought to be massive taxes on urban vacation, vacant housing, and entirely airbnb properties to encourage utilization by those who require housing rather than being hoarded/exploited by those who use them for recreational/investment purposes.
    - dionidium 5y ago
      Unfortunately, like everybody involved in the housing space, I’ve of course heard this claim about millions of vacant homes many times. It’s a notoriously silly take. Most vacant homes covered by that statistic are either 1) uninhabitable shells in low-demand rust-belt metros; or 2) houses that are for sale or between tenants. A small percentage of them are second homes. And while you could of course raise taxes on those homes (a policy I’d probably support in some form), it’s unlikely that it’d have much of an impact on the overall problem.
carpedimebagjoe 5y ago
And iceberg mansions. The neighbors really love those.

playpause 5y ago

The Guardian did an interesting interactive story a few years ago on how these 'viewing corridors' are affecting the skyline: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/11/city-of-london-skyline-of-tomorrow-interactive https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/11/city-of...

samizdis 5y ago

Not just towards St Paul's, but also to the Palace of Westminster. See the City of London's "Protected views and tall buildings" planning docs [1] and the section "Protected vistas in London" in the Wikipedia page Protected View [2]. Also, see the Wikipedia page on Greenwich Hospital, London [3]: An early controversy arose when it emerged that the original plans for the hospital would have blocked the riverside view from the Queen's House. Queen Mary II therefore ordered that the buildings be split, providing an avenue leading from the river through the hospital grounds up to the Queen's House and Greenwich Hill beyond. The resulting effect is displayed well in this contemporary pic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naval_College.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naval_College.JPG [1] https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-policy/protected-views-and-tall-buildings https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-p... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_view https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_view [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Hospital,_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Hospital,_London