Thousands of new luxury apartments are appearing in central London in the city’s latest building boom — but some will now be less palatial¹ than originally planned.

在伦敦市最新这轮建筑热潮中，市中心又将增添数千套豪华公寓，但部分公寓可能不如原计划那样奢华。

Developers are going back to their drawing boards to replace large homes with higher numbers of smaller, less expensive flats after increases in stamp duty sent the top of the market into decline.

随着印花税上调导致高端住宅市场下滑，开发商们已开始重新规划，将大房子换成更多套数的面积较小、价钱较低的公寓。

The latest example is the New Scotland Yard site in Westminster, where the Abu Dhabi-backed developers are in talks with planners to increase the number of apartments and cut their size.

位于威斯敏斯特的新苏格兰场项目就是最新例子，有阿布扎比背景的开发商正在与规划者讨论增加公寓套数，缩小房子面积。

“There is a wider trend in prime London to reduce unit sizes,” said Mark Farmer, chief executive of Cast, a real estate² and construction consultancy.

房地产及建筑咨询公司Cast的首席执行官马克•法默(Mark Farmer)表示：“伦敦黄金路段的大趋势是缩小公寓面积。”

He said changes made by former chancellor³ George Osborne, which increased the tax on expensive homes while reducing it for those below ￡925,000, were partly to blame. “The key trigger point, I would say, is the ￡925,000 stamp duty threshold, where rates step up from 5 to 10 per cent, or from 8 to 13 per cent if you are an investor⁴.”

他说前财政大臣乔治•奥斯本(George Osborne)调整税收是造成这一趋势的部分原因——新政策增加了豪宅的税收，同时下调了售价低于92.5万英镑房产的税收。“我认为关键导火索是92.5万英镑的印花税门槛，超过这个门槛税率从5%上升到10%，如果你是投资者，那么税率就从8%上升到13%。”

These new rates, which came into force in 2014, have been blamed in part for a slowdown in the luxury new-build market.

新税率于2014年生效，一直被指责部分地导致了中高档新建住宅市场放缓。

Investors⁵ who are buying second or additional homes — a key market for new-build — pay an extra 3 per cent of the purchase price.

购买二套或以上住房的投资者——新建住房的一个重要市场——要多支付购买价格的3%。

While prices in some areas are still rising, the average new-build price in London’s West End was down 4.5 per cent in the past year, according to JLL, the property agency.

据房地产服务机构仲量联行(JLL)的数据，部分地段房价仍在上涨，不过伦敦西区新建住宅平均价格在过去一年下跌了4.5%。

Northacre, which is developing the New Scotland Yard site, said the group was increasing the planned number of apartments from 268 to 295 because it was “changing a number of the three-bedroom apartments into one- and two-bedroom apartments”.

新苏格兰场的开发商Northacre表示，该集团准备将计划新建公寓数量从268套增加到295套，因为它打算将“一批三居室公寓改成一居室和两居室”。

“This is due to the fact that our initial marketing⁶ efforts have resulted in strong interest for those smaller units,” the group said.

该集团表示：“这是因为我们的初期营销工作令投资者对较小的公寓产生了浓厚的兴趣。”

The former police headquarters, bought by Abu Dhabi Financial Group for ￡370m in 2014, is to be redeveloped over the next five years into a 1m sq ft development across six buildings, which will also include retail⁷, restaurants and offices.

新苏格兰场将在未来五年重新开发，总占地面积一百万平方英尺，包含6栋大楼，同时将附带零售及餐饮空间和写字楼。新苏格兰场以前是伦敦警察厅总部所在地，2014年被阿布扎比金融集团(Abu Dhabi Financial Group)以3.7亿英镑收购。

The developers of the 42-acre Battersea Power Station site have made similar changes, applying earlier this year to add 409 homes to the 3,444 planned, cutting the number of three- and four-bedroom units — as well as eliminating plans for a hotel — and enabling the flats to be sold at lower prices.

占地42英亩的巴特西发电厂(Battersea Power Station)地块的开发商也作出了同样的调整，今年早些时候申请将计划的3444套公寓增加409套，削减三居室和四居室的数量，并取消建设一座酒店的计划，同时允许以较低价格出售公寓。

The Clearings development in Chelsea, backed by the Sports Direct founder⁸ Mike Ashley, received permission this month to change its mix of homes to eliminate seven town houses and a six-bedroom flat, increasing the total units from 69 to 78.

切尔西Clearings项目本月获批可以改变其混合住宅计划，取消7栋联排别墅(town house)和一套六居室公寓，将公寓总数从69套增加到78套。该项目背后的支持者是Sports Direct创始人迈克•阿什利(Mike Ashley)。

While developers look to shrink their most expensive flats to make them easier to sell, there are also signs that the stamp duty changes, market slowdown and uncertainty⁹ over the process of the UK’s departure from the EU are deterring¹⁰ developers from building altogether.

虽然开发商们计划着缩小他们要建的最贵豪宅的面积，让房子更容易出售，但也有迹象表明印花税的调整、市场放缓，以及英国脱欧过程带来的不确定性都削弱了开发商的积极性。

The number of new homes started in central London dropped by 58 per cent in the first half of 2016 compared with the second half of 2015, from 8,760 to 3,670, according to JLL figures.

据仲量联行的数据，2016年上半年伦敦市中心新房开工数量比2015年下半年下降了58%，从8760套减少到了3670套。

Mr Farmer said it was likely developers’ margins¹² would be squeezed even with the changes to their building plans.

法默表示，开发商即使调整了建设计划，其利润空间仍可能被挤压。

“It is actually also more expensive to build, per square foot, a smaller-unit, denser¹³ scheme, so developer gross margin¹¹ may still fall unless you drive higher sales values per square foot for the smaller units, which is a tough ask in a hardening market,” he said.

他说：“实际上按照每平方英尺造价来说，面积较小、设计较密集的房子其实更贵，因此开发商的毛利率仍可能下降，除非你将较小公寓每平方英尺销售价值拉高。在一个不断紧缩的市场，这是个艰难的问题。”