Property investors in London are pulling out all the stops to get the best out of their portfolios while the Olympic Games take place in the capital next month.
Reports from letting agents across the South East suggest that property owners are covering all sorts of buildings with landlord insurance, including rooftops and vacant shops, to ensure they don’t miss out on what is expected to be a property investor’s bonanza. One letting agent has reported owners offering sports fields, and in one cases a worked out quarry as camping sites, to squeeze the very best out of their land ownership. With over eleven million visitors expected to be in London for the games, space will be at a premium and it looks like even the most unlikely of venues may well give landlords a good return on their investment while the event takes place.
Mark Hughes-West is the managing director of a company that specialises in finding venues for one-off occasions such as film shoots and stunts. His company, Space 2, have been inundated with offers; he explained “You’ll see usable space created that doesn’t currently exist. It’s been a long time since the Games were in such a densely populated city and people have to be more imaginative. Demand from film crews keen to capture panoramic views of the London skyline has pushed up prices for rooftop space and fees are likely to double from their norm outside of the Games to 300 pounds per hour over the period. People are fixated on what the space is, not what it could be. They’re looking at it and saying “It’s just an empty field” well, it’s not to us and people coming in and asking if there land will be of any use are amazed at just what we can get for them.”
The afore mentioned quarry near the Bluewater Shopping Precinct in Kent will probably be used to house temporary staff by companies with big operations, while one sports field has been hired by a group of performers working on the handover ceremony at the end of the games. Even local councils have got into the act with Newham Council renting empty apartments out to TV Broadcasters, including the BBC.