Affordable housing is not affordable

It seems that 'affordable housing', a term much bandied about nowadays, is actually not really affordable at all. Generally the phrase is taken to mean that the property is available at below full market cost or rent. Much is often made of the 'affordable' element of housing in new developments. However are they really affordable for low income families?

In an article in the excellent Property People magazine (available foc to annual members of my online service www.landlordlaw.co.uk) we are told that the term 'affordable' has recently been defined in monetary terms by a team of researchers (led by Peter Ambrose, visiting professor in housing studies at the University of Brighton, working closely with the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust and London Citizens).

The team calculate that the amount affordable for housing for a family of two adults and two children, living in east London, is £135 per week (at the present time). Not surprisingly the researchers also found that the only housing available at this price is local authority or registered social landlord (housing association) housing. Privately-rented housing or low cost home ownership would is completely out of the question.

So affordable is not affordable. Rather like the accelerated possession procedure is not really accelerated. Does anyone have any other similar examples of misleading phrases from government?

Rent arrears protocol justified

Figures from the DCA show that landlord possession claims were 20% down during the last quarter. Co-incidentally this was the first quarter after the rent arrears protocol came into force. That’s the protocol which requires social sector rent officers to try to sort things out before issuing proceedings for possession.

So maybe it was a good idea.

Possession claims stats

For those who are interested in such things, the Department of Constitutional Affairs have published the stats for possession proceedings which can be viewed here.

To see the figures you have to scroll right down to the end of the page. The stats are divided into mortgage claims and landlord possession claims, the latter including both social and private landlords.

The figues for this quarter are slightly up on last year, but less than the previous years. It looks as if the trend over all is downwards, as the total figures for 2001 claims made was 175,908 whereas the total claims for last year were 144,674. For some reason the number of claims always seems to be higher in the first quarter of the year. It seems fairly constant that only about 67% of claims get converted into possession orders (including suspended orders).

Small landlords dominate PRS

Reading an article in the Landlord press, I was interested to see that the median number of properties owned by private residential landlords is 4, and that some 30% have just a single property. The private rented sector, which makes up around 10% of the housing market, is dominated by small scale private individuals who rent property as a sideline activity. Apparently only about 15% of these belong to any trade or professional body.

No doubt it is partly as a result of this, that increasing regulation is being introduced, starting with the mandatory licensing for HMOs mentioned in yesterdays post, with more to follow in due course. Landlords need to be aware of these developments or they could find themselves in difficulties.