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How the ex-council flats were being marketed online this week |
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Fat Flipping profits Are incredible
Developers may rake in £200k for one ‘unbelievable’ council property
DEVELOPERS are offering former council homes on the private market – just six weeks after buying them from the Town Hall.
And in a super-quick turnaround – known in the property trade as “flipping” – they stand to make close to £200,000 in profit if they can find people to match their asking prices for three ex-local authority flats in Belsize Park.
The homes on the Russell Nurseries Estates in Aspern Grove only left council control at the start of last month when they were snapped up at auction.
They were released by Camden’s housing chiefs despite protests from tenants who say council homes should be retained to ease the huge waiting list for cheap accommodation.
The Town Hall has also been warned that it is letting homes go when the property market is at a low ebb and only seasoned experts in the business can generate good value.
The three flats in Belsize Park were bought together for £560,000 by an unnamed bidder.
Now, less than two months later, they are being marketed by estate agents at £250,000 each, potentially allowing the buyer to collect £750,000 and a clear profit. Labour councillor Theo Blackwell said: “There were always real questions about property sell-offs because the housing market is so volatile but taxpayers will be gobsmacked by this. Camden Council presented someone, practically overnight, with the chance to make a sweet profit from our council housing stock.”
Adverts warn that refurbishment work is needed at Russell Nurseries but Abaco estate agents, the firm which is handling the sales, are partly marketing the properties on their desirable Belsize Park location.
The sales blurb includes the screaming tag: “Unbelievable.”
Lib Dem housing chief Councillor Chris Naylor said: “I am not aware of this but it makes me very concerned. There are covenants agreed that we only sell to developers who will do refurbishment work before selling them on again. I will look into this to ensure this is the case.”
When the New Journal rang Abaco last night (Wednesday), the company said there was no question of rules being broken. “There are several covenants attached to these properties and they will all be adhered to,” a member of staff said.
It was outside the same flats in Belsize Park that tenant protesters staged a protest aimed at urging Cllr Naylor and his Lib Dem colleagues to halt the sale of council properties last month.
With a bit of humour, they imagined an auction of Lib Dem councillors’ own houses – “to see if they’d like it”.
The serious point behind the demonstration was to illustrate how unpopular the council’s policy of selling off homes is on estates across Camden.
Cllr Naylor has, in the absence of funding from the Labour government, defended the auctions as a way to generate money to repair the rest of the council housing stock in the borough. Tenants leaders from all corners of Camden have argued the council should freeze the sales and lobby ministers to pay up.
“Stop The Sell Offs” campaigners are holding an open meeting at the Kentish Town Community Centre on Wednesday from 6.30pm to discuss the way forward.
Meric Apak, chairman of the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations, said: “We will be getting grass roots tenants to join in the campaign and will be publicising which councillors will not sign the petition to stop the sell offs.” |
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