Affordable housing In ‘Billionaires Row’ Scheme Not Viable, Developer Says.
The plan for 109 properties in London at an average of £ 2 million each causes anger in the district hit by the housing crisis.
A property developer forecasting a profit of tens of millions of pounds from a luxury apartment complex in London’s “Billionaires Row” has claimed that he cannot afford to subsidize affordable housing there.
In a move that has caused outrage in a district ravaged by an affordable housing crisis, Harrison Varma argued his plan to build 109 “high-end” homes with an indoor pool, gym, spa and underground parking on The Bishops Avenue in north London. He did not leave money for cheaper housing.
In planning documents, the company’s consultants estimated that the plan would generate £ 37 million in profit from £ 213 million in revenue on a road considered one of the most expensive addresses in Britain, where oligarchs from the old states Soviets, Saudi royalty and Nigerian oil magnates have bought palatial mansions. The new houses will cost around £ 2 million each on average.
The case will focus on highly complex negotiations between developers and advice on payments from private home builders to obtain affordable housing. Over the past three years, around 50% of all affordable housing in England has been financed by such deals with developers. However, the construction of social housing fell 12% in the year to April 2021, according to official figures released Thursday showing that just under 6,000 houses rented by the cheapest “social rents” were completed in England.
Analysis by the housing charity Shelter showed that only one social home was built in England for every 195 households on waiting lists. About 46,000 other “affordable” homes were built, but these include shared ownership and homes that cost 80% of the market rent.
On the plan on The Bishops Avenue, Barnet’s board, controlled by the conservatives, agreed with the developer’s financial viability assessment that it “cannot feasibly support the provision of affordable housing.”
Township Labor opposition leader Barry Rawlings has accused the council of being “utterly negligent.”
“We are in the middle of a housing crisis with nearly 2,500 families trapped in temporary housing [in Barnet],” Rawlings said. “If the council had done its job right and negotiated as much as possible… it would have funded enough affordable housing to re-house most, if not all, of these families.”
The council later accepted a payment of £ 1.1 million from Harrison Varma, enough to buy four two-bedroom apartments in cheaper parts of the township. The deal comes despite the council’s goal that all new developments of more than 10 homes must include 40% affordable units.
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