Brixton Sizzles AsLondon Prices Soar

LONDONAGENT

Regeneration schemes have transformed the south London suburb, with prices up 30 per cent in five years

LONDON TOWNHOUSE BRIXTON

NEWS, ADVICE AND INSPIRATION FOR PROPERTY PROFESSIONALS londonagent.co.uk

When the south London suburb of Brixton was developed dur-ing a Victorian property boom, it was resolutely middle class. Later, around the turn of the century, and again following the Blitz, a demographic shift took place when the large and ex-pensive homes near Acre Lane and Electric Avenue built for doctors, accountants and busi-ness owners were converted

into boarding houses. Brixton became, at various turns, bohe-mian, impoverished, and known for ethnic tension. In 1981, the fi rst of several riots with which the neighbourhood became synonymous broke out. Twelve years ago, a policeman called the Brixton market space “a 24-hour crack supermarket”.Today, the doctors and account-ants are back, joined by bankers

and a very different type of mar-ket. Last month, a bar named Champagne + Fromage opened in Brixton Village (the covered market formerly known as the Granville Arcade), a bistro serv-ing £12 glasses of Brut, artisanal cheeses and exotic foods such as snail raclette.It is the latest and most extreme example of the rise.CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

ROUGUE TENANTSOWE £282 MILLIONLandlords are owed £282 millionin lost rent and property damage, a BBC programme reveals tonight.While many have been labelled “rogue” for their ruthless treatment of tenants, the TV documentary shows that landlords can be vic-tims too. Property expert Paul Shamplina, of Landlord Action, has been help-ing landlords with problem tenants for more than 25 years and helped criminalise squatting in private homes. He said: “Over the years, our experience of professional bad tenants has been plentiful, often evicting the same tenant from more than one property. Although in the minority, this type of tenant has the intention of preying on vulnerable landlords in order to live for free. And, as many tenants rely on housing benefi t to pay the rent while the Government is looking to cut the £26 billion housing benefi t bill, more and more tenants will not be able to cover the rent, and both them and their landlords will be the losers.” Ana Rabrenovic let her three-bedroom house in Catford to raise income. Her agent went bust taking her deposit and when the tenant stopped paying rent, she was desperate. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

CANDY’S INNEW YORK

THE CHARDLIFE AT THE TOP

An estate agent who was also a landlord who risked a tenant’s health by failing to carry out repairs on his damp and mouldy flat has been fined nearly £3,000. Mark Tomlinson, of Trojans Es-tate Agents, in Bush Hill Park, Enfield, was served with an improvement notice by Barnet Council in April last year after the

tenant reported severe problems with damp and condensation in his ground-floor flat in Oakleigh Road, Totteridge. The extensive problems includ-ed rising and penetrating damp throughout the flat, along with mould in the bathroom. Mr Tom-linson pleaded guilty at Brent Magistrates’ Court last week to

failing to comply with the coun-cil’s order and was ordered to pay £2,275. Cabinet member for housing Tom Davey said: “This is a positive result for the council and demonstrates our commit-ment to making sure landlords in Barnet keep their property in a fit and safe condition for their tenants.”

A protest was held outside two estate agents after claims ‘racist’ remarks were made by employees to undercover reporters. Campaigners organised a picket outside National Estate Agents and A to Z Property Services agents in High Road, Willesden, on Tuesday in re-sponse to an undercover BBC filming which showed employees saying they were willing to refuse to let properties to people of Afro-Caribbean descent.A to Z Property Services claims they have been ‘wrongly portrayed’, but no one from National Estate Agents was available for comment. The protest was called by Brent Hous-ing Action and supported by Unite Com-munity and Brent Renters’ Campaign, and campaigner Sujata Aurora said: “This sort of behaviour is reminiscent of the racism faced by people in the 1950s with the signs which said ‘no dogs, no blacks, no Irish’.” Employees at 10 estate agents were

filmed undercover in the BBC report, which said: “Under the Equality Act 2010, it is illegal for busi-nesses to refuse to provide a service based on ethnic-ity. But 10 firms told a reporter posing as a landlord they would not let to African-Car-ibbean people at his request. A black re-searcher was denied viewings, yet his white coun-terpart was welcomed. BBC London was initially tipped off certain letting agents were willing to discriminate against African-Caribbean people on behalf of

landlords, with the alleged misdoing rife in parts of west London.”

Dilip Motiram, owner of A to Z Property Services, said: “We

believe we have been wrongly

portrayed and we are seeking legal advice. The member of staff who was filmed by the BBC has been suspend-ed.”

Mr Motiram said the A to Z employee

was suspended in relation to the investi-

gation, but believed the worker had fallen victim to

a trap. He added that he would be seeking legal advice about the BBC’s coverage and about the comments made by the employee.

News 7Protest After Estate Agents Accused Of Making Racist Remarks

Tenants who rent out council homes face up to two years in prison People who rent out their council homes to make money could be locked up for two years under new laws which come into force today. For the first time, sub-letting a council property is now a criminal offence with fraudsters also facing hefty fines. Ministers are clamping down on the practice after discovering it costs the taxpayer £1.8 billion a year and clogs up desperately needed social housing. Previously people who rented out social housing — often for thousands of pounds in profit — faced little more than having to hand back the keys to their property. Housing minister Kris Hopkins said: “For years, tenancy cheats have been able to carry on with their fraudulent activity, denying social homes to people in real need while facing little more than a slap on the wrist if they got caught. Today’s new powers will ensure social tenants found sub-letting their home will face the real threat of prison time and a fine.” Officials estimate that about 100,000 social homes in England could be unlawfully occupied, while thousands languish on waiting lists. Today’s new laws, under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act, will also give social landlords the power to recover the proceeds of sub-letting. The legislation forms part of a wider drive to tackle fraud which has seen Whitehall pass £19 million to councils, allowing them to set up specialist investigation teams and use advanced data-matching techniques to catch rule-breakers. The reforms are coming into force after the Government backed a Private Member’s Bill proposed by Tory MP for Watford Richard Harrington. He said: “This will make a real difference to the many hard-working people and families waiting for a home.” A Labour spokes-man said the measure had been given cross-party support and was a contin-uation of work done by the previous government.

Estate Agent Fined Over Damp In TenantsRented Flat

10 firms told

a reporter posing as a landlord they would not let to

African-Caribbean people at his

request.

If you have bought a property in the past five years, you have a group to thank for making the purchase possible: cash buyers. As previously reported in The Sunday Times, according to Johnny Morris, head of research at Hamptons International, they are the unsung heroes of the property market. They are the reason it didn’t “completely, utterly” collapse post-Lehman Brothers, as they filled the gap in the market vacated by first-time buyers, keeping everything moving. “They are as important to the health of the market as first-time buyers” Morris says. Research on cash buyers just released by Hamptons International, the growth we’ve experienced in the market in the past six months is largely down to peo-ple buying mortgage-free. There have been 20,000 more sales in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, and according to the agency’s calculations some 70 per cent of those extra purchases were made by debt-free buyers. This means that the common assumption that recent growth has been driven by mortgage availability and the Funding for Lending Scheme is not the case: it’s been cash buyers propelling the property market instead.

While we know what a first-time buyer looks like – how old they are; the aver-age deposit they have scraped together — cash buyers, who now make up a third of all buyers, are a lesser-exam-ined aspect of the property market. In place of hard facts, speculation

inevitably occurs: it is often assumed that the only people who can afford to buy their properties outright are ludi-crously-remunerated City bankers or overseas buyers with big cheque books collecting trophy homes in prime Central London. The reality, however, is less glamorous. “It is more likely to be a pension-aged couple downsizing in the South West to release a bit of equity and live a better lifestyle,” Morris says. The other dominant group of cash

buyers are investors — usually buy-to-let landlords, who pre-2007 were much more likely to take on mortgages to help fund their purchases. Post-Lehman, however, an event that meant it was impossible for many to obtain lending, their habits have been changed. Now,

these investors are increasingly buying smaller properties outright rather than getting a mortgage to fund a bigger, more expensive purchase. Another assumption challenged by the research is that the number of cash buyers have exploded in recent years. This isn’t the case, points out Morris: it’s just the proportion that has changed. While in 2006, the percentage of cash buyers across England and Wales was 24.4 per cent — it’s now 33 per cent

— the true number of cash buyers is still lower today

as it is a far less active market by comparison.

In 2006, when there were 1.5 million sales, 364,000 of those were cash. Meanwhile in the past 12 months — in which there

have been 850,000 sales — the figure is

284,000.The regions where cash

buyers are most dominant also provide surprises: London has

the lowest incidence of cash buyers in the country, at 23.7 per cent. The South West, meanwhile, has the highest (38.8 per cent), while East Anglia is second highest (36.4 per cent) and Yorks & Humber third highest (36.6.per.cent).The reason why the South West has the highest incidence of cash buyers — 15 per cent higher than the capital — is that it has the highest proportion of old-er buyers. Also, lots of buyers downsize in their retirement from London to the South West — as well as a sizeable group of buy-to-let investors and holiday home owners, some of whom will own their second home debt-free. London is at the bottom because of its lack of affordability — the average home in the capital, according to the Land Registry, is £386,000 compared with £173,000 in the South West. “Put simply, property in London is too expensive for the domes-tic market to buy in cash,” Morris says. It is also possible that many of the property commentators are based in Central London, which is skewing our view of the dominance of this area of London — that in reality, areas such as Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster, much discussed and examined, ulti-mately make up only 7 per cent of total London sales. Mette Larsen, a restaurateur who also owns a virgin coconut oil plant in Kenya (she manufactures and exports the oil to Europe), is a cash buyer. She recently downsized, buying a two-bedroom flat in Cheltenham outright for £225,000 as well as a two-bedroom house in Kenya. This was achieved having sold a five-bedroom house in Cheltenham where she lived for ten years with her three children aged between 18 and 28. “My last child went to university so it seemed the right time to downsize. Owning my flat outright represents financial security — when you have no debt, you feel less vulnerable. It means I can focus on my business without hav-ing to worry about a mortgage.”

News 7

CASH BUYERS ARE DRIVING THE MARKET

Myth: Wealthy Russians Are The Reason Prices Are Rising

One Hyde Park

Mortgage-free buyers are the oil in the engine of the current UK property boom

Property in London is too expensive for the domestic market to buy

in cash