Does Paris have the medium-rise solution to London’s high-rising rents?
The UK capital officially has the smallest and oldest housing in the developed world, is the solution to build up rather than out?
by Jordan Young
British homes are the most cramped and the worst value for money in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to a new study by the Resolution Foundation.
Nowhere is this more evident than in London. The average cost of living space in the capital reached an eye-watering £11,792 per square metre in 2022 (Catella). By comparison, an equivalent square metre of highly sought-after Paris real estate is 26.5% cheaper (£8,662). In the UK’s next dearest city, Manchester, the rate is just £4125 per square metre, 65% cheaper.
Practically speaking, most Londoners pay much less as the average is heavily skewed by astronomic price tags on luxury accommodation in the city centre. But why is this trend so much less stark for major cities in other developed nations?
The legacy of Victorian London
It is partly an inevitability of the way the city has rapidly expanded. London has the oldest housing stock of any European capital, with 38% built before the second world war - mostly comprising Victorian terraces.
Whereas most European cities coped with booming populations by building more flats, swathes of London were already covered in older, lower-rise homes - the prevailing approach has been to expand outwards not upwards.
The resulting suburban sprawl leaves the city with a dearth of affordable housing, reflected in the way the price of flats and maisonettes has kept up with or even outpaced the growth of more spacious housing.
A median London flat in 2023 costs 7.25 times more than in 1995. This is great news for those who bought in the 90s, but for London’s growing population of forever-renters, the best chance of home ownership increasingly seems to lie in the commuter towns.
Medium-rise the solution?
All evidence points towards a need for taller buildings. But how tall? The often glacial process of gaining planning permission and tight restrictions on major construction projects are two of many reasons why gleaming Hong Kong-style highrises will not be blanketing Greenwich or Wandsworth in the near future.
London could look across the channel to Paris for a workable compromise. Between 1853 and 1870, under the commission of Emperor Napoleon III (Napoleon I’s nephew), urban planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann meticulously renovated the French capital.
After a surge in population, the city had become a filthy, cramped warren of winding streets and alleyways. Haussmann is largely credited with constructing the spacious tree-lined boulevards and uniform 5-7 storey apartment buildings that central Paris is now internationally famed for.
Haussmann’s legacy is a modern Paris with an overall dwelling density of 136 units per hectare, around twice the density of London’s densest borough, Kensington & Chelsea, at 70.8 units per hectare. (Greater London Authority Housing Report)
A vision of the future
There is already some indication that urban planning in London is heading in the right direction. According to the New London Architecture (NLA) 2018 Tall Buildings Survey, there are 12 major medium-rise residential developments underway.
The residences vary significantly in specification but all will replace older, less-dense housing, bolster supply and help reduce house price inflation. The best example is Camden Courtyards, a 7 storey development with bright, spacious two and three-bedroom apartments at a density of 410 units per hectare.
If all of central London had residential density equivalent to Camden Courtyards, the city’s population could fit in an area one tenth of the size. It is not just affordability that would be impacted. Efficient, modern dwellings, shorter commute times, easier access to amenities and more space for businesses, industry, parks and gardens would inarguably improve quality of life.
