The number takes tall building delivery in the capital to the highest point in history.
That’s according to New London Architecture and GL Hearn’s annual London Tall Buildings Survey.
It found that the current pipeline now stands at 541 buildings for the year 2018, up from 510 in 2017.
Meanwhile a total of 22 of the 33 London boroughs now contain tall buildings (defined as buildings over 20 storeys) under construction.
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There was a significant increase in outer London boroughs, with 5% more tall buildings in the pipeline compared with 2017. Of these, Barking & Dagenham (+100% / +7), Brent (+30% / +5) and Ealing (+60% / +9) had the most noticeable changes from 2017 to 2018.
There has also been a significant increase in the permission rate for tall buildings, increasing to 291 in 2018, up from 267 in 2017.
The survey showed a slight slowdown in the number of applications and starts on site in 2018, respectively down 3.8% and 2% from the previous year, but declared that the appetite for tall buildings was still stable.
Peter Murray, chairman of New London Architecture said: “After six years of undertaking this review, I think we can finally declare 2019 as the Year of the Tall Building.
“Tall buildings are becoming increasingly accepted as a necessary form of urban development, not just in commercial centres like the City or Canary Wharf, but to provide much needed new homes right across the capital. This year’s research confirms that tall buildings are now an established component of London’s development programme; in spite of the current political uncertainty the pipeline remains steady.
“The NLA continues to call for the greater use of computer modelling by planners to assess the impact of taller buildings and once again this year we have worked closely with VU.CITY, whose London model is the largest, most accurate digital model in the world, to produce projected imagery.”
Stuart Baillie, head of planning (London and South East), GL Hearn said: “This year’s survey demonstrates that there is continued appetite for tall buildings in London. East London continues to be a focus and outer London is seeing a growing share of the pipeline albeit focused on seven outer London boroughs.
“Politicians and planning policies appear to be facilitating this growth with a fairly consistent number of applications over the last two years but notably an increase in planning permissions and only eight refusals in 2018.
“The projected completion of 76 tall buildings during 2019 is quite staggering compared to previous years’ completions being less than 30 per annum.”
