This charming residence is now available to buy in E5 / Hackney for about £465,000 - that’s roughly half a million quid for an X local authority / Brick Build LCC 2-bed on a large estate.
It’s almost exactly the same as the flat I used to live in, Sumner Road - Peckham. Frankly, my flat had a better location and another bedroom. It’s worth pointing out that this property has been slightly enlarged - the old washroom that used to be accessible only from its own front door on the landing is now part of an extended kitchen area - which would once have been the same size as the bathroom.
There is nothing particularly fancy about this flat - the owners have done very little (apart from the enlarged kitchen) to improve it, and I’m guessing the windows were replaced a few years previous to it becoming private. I expect it’s been used for rental ever since its purchase on the Right To Buy Scheme.
The rental value of this apartment is roughly £2500 - £3000 pcm. That’s three thousand pounds a month.
These flats were on the market in 2007 for aprox £150,000
So the profit (for the flat) over the last 20 years has been about £300,000 - and the rental value income about £200,000
My old flat in Peckham, which was bigger, nicer, better positioned and very well insulated with a private balcony overlooking trees and an old school, was demolished in the 1990’s after being fully refurbished and having new windows - to make way for a small estate of low-rise houses. - displacing in total about 400 families across the estate.
My rent (to Southwark) was about £ 140 pcm in the 1990’s. I had a secure tenancy.
There was always a problem with managed decline and lack of investment with these estates - which is insane. The flats were brilliant, practically soundproof, very easy to heat and keep warm and really well located. The car parking areas were usually neglected tarmac, and a very small amount of money and imagination could have brought them to life. People who understand the situation better than I do can talk about the huge crisis in loss of income that the offloading of the housing stock has created for local authorities - or how a very small group of people have become very rich at the expense of the rest of us.
Where did it all go wrong?
Here are the vendor’s details if you fancy becoming part of the problem.
You have put the blame where it belongs. At the feet of Thatcher. Selling council houses and not allowing the councils to use the money for building more. Council houses were part of what helped to remove predatory landlords. Remember Rachman? Rent controls existed from 1915 to 1980. However the Housing Act 1980 made it Conservative Party policy to deregulate and dismantle rent regulation. This was followed by complete deregulation for all new tenancies in 1988, allowing landlords to charge what they wanted. This in turn led to many rich Tory swine, presumably the desired outcome from the start. I recall Angela Rayner's comment "Tory Scum!" in the HoP. Not often you see plain truth in Westminster.
What a sign of the times - a council flat on The Modern House!