In the wake of the recent surge in immigration, London’s councils are facing an immense challenge in the provision of housing facilities to the deserving citizens. Since the advent of housing benefits, the British government has provided millions with a variety of government funded facilities to get by, on top of the list is the ‘council housing’. Some of the properties owned by the local councils are pretty old and comparatively large; hence demand a large sum to maintain over an extended period. Occasionally councils sell some of their properties to raise money to fund more houses rather than focusing capital on just one rather large estate.
Recently a modest looking property located in the heart of Peckham has been auctioned for almost a million pounds and shocked many property experts all through the country. Situated on the junction of McDermott Road and Costa Street, this particular house saw a flurry of bids and was snapped up for just under a million pounds, £920,000 to be more accurate. (Evening Standard)
Savills Auctions took the responsibility of organizing the bidding of this Peckham ‘shack’ which does not come with planning permission due to its ‘golden’ location under the shadow of famous ‘village’ and major shopping amenities. The house has a fairly large entrance hall, separate toilet (does not have fitted toilet), three rooms, kitchen and bathroom area. No one expected that the property could climb anywhere close to a million mark when the guide price of 590,000 was set in the early stages of the auction. However not long after the commencement of the actual auction, the whole affair turned into a sort of bidding war and the price kept rising until it reached its maximum mark of £920,000. This came as a surprise to the Savills as well as a number of other property experts since not long ago a comparatively larger house (a 4 bedroom detached house) located on the same road was sold for £400,000.
Head of Savills, Chris Coleman-Smith said that company anticipated the great potential in the property and, therefore, set the guide price of £600,000, but no one had the inkling of such a surge in the bidding and everyone seemed satisfied with the outcome. He added that the property nevertheless holds the immense potential of not only returning the invested money but also to make a significant profit after a little bit of renovation that it may require.
The bungalow was previously owned by the Southwark council and was housed by the council tenants up until 2002. According to the Councillor Richard Livingstone, who is also the cabinet member for housing at Southwark Council, the cost of maintaining this particular property had touched the highest possible limits and Council couldn’t really afford to keep it going. He seemed absolutely pleased with the sale of the property and said that the money generated by the sale will be used for the provision of shelter to a number of families in the dire need of a house.