Games Monitor

After a very rapid preliminary skim through this 142 page report I notice three things;

• It shows 'House Price Changes in Olympic Cities in the 5 years leading up to the Games.' (Table 17 page 56)

  "In addition the Halifax report pointed to other sporting events suggesting links between mega events and the housing market: Halifax says the five-year run-up to Manchester's Commonwealth Games in 2002 brought a 102% house price rise in the city, against 52% for the North-West region and 83% for the UK. (Western Mail 2005 “Olympic Gold for Housing”)

  Further work would be required to confirm the validity of these correlations. A 2001 study for MacQuarrie Bank suggested that the Olympic Games only had a minor impact on the rental market and concluded that Sydney, like Atlanta, ‘experienced little or no Olympic related boost.’ The study found that prices in the Olympic [area] increased by less than 0.5% above the city average for 1996 to 2000.".

• It proposes all London and East London median rental values and house price changes be assessed before during and after the Games. (pages 99 & 100)

However no mention is made of homelessness rates as a monitoring indicator of the impacts of price changes in the rental market upon the poor.

• It doesn't list this website as a reference source for further information about the London Olympics in its bibliography.