WHAT MILLENNIALS SAY about gentrification and what they do are not necessarily connected. They may publicly decry the makeover and demographic changes to Hackney and environs over the last decade but many are busy investing in regeneration.

Forty-four per cent of all fresh stock sold in London last year 2017 — 9,700 homes — was in northeast London and what is still termed the East End. Analysis of Land Registry data shows that sales have risen dramatically since the previous year and are particularly strong in Clerkenwell, Shoreditch and central Hackney.

The hipster hotspots easily outsold Nine Elms, Battersea and Clapham in South London, where towers of flats were put up to appeal to Chinese and other foreign investors, leaving developers with over-supply at the Thames-side sites.

Andrew Bridges, of Stirling Ackroyd New Homes, comments: “London is shifting its centre of gravity eastwards.”

Hamish Scott 010318

* Backstory: Swamping the East End; New Hackney era; LibDems stand up for young renters; Huge rise in Hackney evictions, say Greens; New Era Estate sees off wealthy MP

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