Article updated August 2026
Back in 2023, we asked whether East London's development engine was about to shift further east, from established heavyweight Tower Hamlets towards up-and-coming Newham and Barking & Dagenham. Three years on, we're in a position to say what's actually happened rather than what might - and the answer is more interesting than a simple yes or no.
For this piece, we've defined East London as Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Newham, Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham, and Havering.
Key Highlights
- Tower Hamlets house prices have fallen 14.5% year-on-year to May 2026, a steeper drop than London's overall 3.7% decline - a marked reversal from the growth story we reported in 2023.
- Tower Hamlets remains the UK's fastest-growing local authority by population, with the ONS projecting growth from 323,854 in 2022 to 389,845 by 2032, so the demand story hasn't disappeared, even if prices have softened.
- Barking & Dagenham is the borough to watch: ONS figures show prices roughly flat, but Land Registry-based data from Rightmove shows prices up around 15% year-on-year, helped by the Barking Riverside Overground extension, which has already unlocked thousands of homes.
- Newham's Populo Living has now delivered over 1,000 homes with several thousand more in its pipeline, and the council's wider Growth Plan targets 8,000 homes on council-owned land.
- Be First, Barking & Dagenham's delivery vehicle, has scaled back its near-term ambition, moving from direct delivery towards a partnership-led model targeting 3,650 homes by 2030 - a more modest goal than the 50,000-homes-by-2037 vision it launched with.
- Waltham Forest is a quiet outperformer, with prices up 3.4% against a falling London average.
Tower Hamlets: Still Growing, No Longer Booming
Tower Hamlets was the clear growth engine of East London when we last covered this topic, driven by its proximity to Canary Wharf and the Olympic Park, and by a decade of house price growth that outpaced Inner London as a whole.
That price story looks very different now. ONS data shows the average house price in Tower Hamlets fell 14.5% year-on-year to £444,000 in May 2026, a steeper correction than London's overall 3.7% fall over the same period. It's worth being upfront about this: the borough that drove the "East London is booming" narrative in 2023 is now correcting harder than the rest of the capital.
What hasn't changed is the underlying demand. The ONS still ranks Tower Hamlets as the UK's fastest-growing local authority by population, projecting growth from 323,854 residents in 2022 to 389,845 by 2032. The council has responded with its Mayor's Accelerated Housing Programme, aiming to fast-track thousands of new homes across dozens of council-owned sites. So the fundamentals that made Tower Hamlets attractive in the first place - density, connectivity, a young and growing population - are still there. It's the price growth that's paused, not the demand.
Newham: Steady Delivery, Not a Breakout Yet
In 2023, we flagged Newham as "hot on the heels" of Tower Hamlets, powered by Populo Living, the council's housing delivery vehicle. That steady progress has continued rather than accelerated into anything dramatic.
Populo Living has now delivered more than 1,000 homes on behalf of the borough, with several thousand more in its pipeline, including a 565-home scheme across two sites in Beckton and North Woolwich. The wider Newham Growth Plan is targeting 8,000 homes on council-owned land. House prices, meanwhile, have held up better than most of the capital: down just 1.4% year-on-year to £405,000, against London's 3.7% fall. That's a borough delivering consistently rather than one experiencing a breakout moment - useful context if you were expecting Newham to have overtaken Tower Hamlets outright by now.
Barking & Dagenham: The Borough Actually Living Up to the "Moving East" Thesis
This is where the 2023 speculation has arguably paid off. Barking & Dagenham is the one part of this story where the data genuinely supports the idea of momentum shifting east.
The picture depends on which data source you look at, which is worth flagging rather than glossing over: ONS figures put the average house price at £361,000 in May 2026, essentially flat year-on-year, while Land Registry-based analysis from Rightmove shows prices around 15% higher than a year ago, and 14% above the 2023 peak. The gap likely comes down to methodology and sample size rather than one source being wrong, but it means any claim about Barking & Dagenham's price growth should be caveated with which dataset it's drawn from.
What's not in dispute is the infrastructure story. The London Overground's Barking Riverside extension, which opened in 2022, has already helped unlock a fast-growing pocket of the borough - with more than 10,000 homes planned around the new station and the area now served by direct river transport too. It's a useful reminder that a single piece of transport infrastructure can shift a borough's trajectory faster than planning policy alone.
The one note of caution: Be First, the council's regeneration company, has scaled back its near-term ambition. Its original pitch was 50,000 homes by 2037 through direct delivery. Its new 2025–2030 Strategic Plan shifts towards a partnership-led model, with a nearer-term target of 3,650 homes by 2030. That's not necessarily a bad thing - a more realistic delivery model can be more durable than an ambitious one that stalls - but it's a meaningfully different story than the one we told in 2023.
Waltham Forest: The Quiet Outperformer
Waltham Forest didn't feature heavily in our original piece beyond a note on its above-average prices, but it's worth a mention here: prices rose 3.4% year-on-year to £524,000 in April 2026, while London as a whole fell 2.1% over the same period. It's a reminder that "East London" isn't a single market, and that outer boroughs with good public realm investment can outperform even when the inner boroughs around them are correcting.
What This Means for Developers
The honest answer to our original question is: momentum has moved, but not in a straight line, and not evenly.
- Tower Hamlets remains the borough with the strongest underlying demand fundamentals, but it's currently a buyer's market on price - worth watching for whether that correction stabilises or continues.
- Barking & Dagenham is the borough where the "moving east" thesis has the most supporting evidence, largely thanks to transport infrastructure rather than planning ambition alone — though treat any single price statistic with a pinch of salt given how much the data sources disagree.
- Newham is the steady, unglamorous performer: consistent delivery, resilient pricing, no dramatic swings either way.
- Don't assume a council's stated housing ambition today will still be its ambition in three years. Be First's scaled-back target is a useful reminder that delivery vehicles adjust to market and funding realities, and site-sourcing decisions should account for that.
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