RESIDENTIALlettings


Don’t be anti-social


Andrea Kirkby says social housing deserves a closer look and could offer tremendous opportunities.


M


ost estate and lettings agents don’t seem to know much about affordable housing. Still less do they see themselves as working in the social sector. However, changes in the market for affordable housing are creating a huge opportunity for agents, as well as threats to their competitive position.


One of the major constraints on the development of the UK housing market is lack of affordability. Knight Frank’s 2009 Affordable Housing review stated that, “When we consider the availability of mortgage finance, the housing market is arguably more unaffordable and inaccessible for new entrants now than at the 2007 market peak,” and not much has changed since then. If you think affordable housing is just for the low-paid minority,


think again. In London, those earning £60,000 a year, two and a half times the average annual income, qualify for shared ownership and rent-to-buy schemes. Yet state subsidy has been taken away from Housing Associations (HAs) and the whole system of providing affordable housing appears to be in flux. Knight Frank’s report comments,


“How we deliver affordable housing in the future will be very different from how we did in the past, the nature of grant aid, products and tenure range are all undergoing review. This is a critical period for setting policy for the next decade.”


58 JULY 2011 PROPERTYdrum Philip Evans, who as well as running Pex Software is a director


of Soho Housing Association, believes this makes it vital that estate agents take a good hard look at what the affordable housing market means for them. “More of these big guys need to review their strategy in that area, as the market is changing,” he says, “It’s becoming integrated into the main market, particularly in the south-east.” While Savills and Knight Frank are already involved through their consultancy services, many other agents have no involvement in the sector at all. He believes innovative ways of involving private investors in the


Corridors of power – there’s opportunity here


social housing market are vital to address the dearth of public funds available. With housing starts now dramatically reduced from their property boom levels, relying on developers to add an affordable housing percentage to their projects is no longer producing adequate results, so new models are being created, such as selling packages of properties to institutional investors. “At the


Livesey Green a


mixed scheme of shared ownership and homes for rent


Photo courtesy: Andrea Klettner. Go to http://lovelondoncouncilhousing.blogspot.com


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