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The Affordable First Home
FROM: Simon Demler
What NEED does this meet?
Currently it is very difficult for people starting off in life to be in a financial position to purchase there own home.
What is the APPROACH?
The housing market in the UK is differentiated in terms of cost not by quality of housing but mainly by location. Basically the same style of house can be different in price because it is in an undesirable location.
I propose to make use of the fact that there are currently many inner suburbs that suffer from a lack of residents, which are empty.
I propose a type of co-operative where people register there interest in getting onto the property ladder in a particular city. When there are enough people interested the project can start off.
A request for a deposit is sent out. This would be cashed into a charity based account for the particular residents group involved.
An election for a set of jobs would then be held amongst the people making up the group. Each job would be defined by a charter that everyone has signed up to. I imagine that these jobs would be comprised of the following:
Bank negotiator this person would be responsible for approaching a set of banks, basically stating that a group of 50 people are looking for 50 mortgages. The idea would be for the banks to compete to obtain the block of business.
Town Planning City council negotiator this person would be responsible to talking to the council to get approval for a block purchase of a fairly empty residential street. They would also try and get some preliminary approval for a set of improvements to the housing on the street selected.
Amenities city council negotiator this person would approach the council to get some council support perhaps for some street improvements, security cameras etc. After all the council should be in favour of some inner city regeneration.
Security negotiator one of the main issues I see with the whole concept is peoples reluctance to move in wholesale to a dodgy area. This could be mitigated by a group security officer. He would be responsible for arranging a neighbourhood watch style arrangement of perhaps the appointment of a security officer.
Once these elections were held on the web site. The elected officers would meet and proceed to negotiate the site. People would then have to financially commit by signing up to the mortgage on offer. Each person would own there own dwelling but would be committed to a process of renovation. This last point is important as it would be necessary to improve the abandoned housing to get it up to a decent standard there by increasing the capital gain in the property.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
There are large benefits involved in this type of scheme. 1. Cheap housing. 2. A potentially large increase in capital gain as people would want to move in to the area. 3. A community of like minded people. 4. Potential for large increase in capital gain.
What is the COMPETITION?
I highly doubt it - this scheme is basically adapting a 70's style commune idea and moving it into the 21st century there by supplying a need that is being extremely neglected.
What BUDGET & LOGISTICS are required?
Money would be required to build a community style web site that supports elections, maps of locations of possible sites. Security for the web site would be important. DEvelopment of the charter for each elected officer would also be important as they would need to be guided.
October 31, 2003 in Connecting People, Empowering Consumers, Pledge Banks | Permalink
Comments
Would it not be a far more effective long-term solution for it to be made illegal for companies to offer an increased salary or bonus to staff living in a particular location - currently often the south-east of England ? This would have the same net effect - of moving people from overpopulated top underpopulated areas - but require far less change in peoples attitudes to home ownership.
Posted by: Paul at Oct 31, 2003 10:59:32 AM
"Would it not be a far more effective long-term solution for it to be made illegal for companies to offer an increased salary or bonus to staff living in a particular location"
Yes it probably would be but I'd suggest there's not a snowball's chance in hell of you convincing the government to make it illegal. I don't think companies are generally keen on the government imposing their will on them. And as the government wouldn't want to risk driving the companies abroad they wouldn't do it.
Posted by: Andrew at Oct 31, 2003 12:30:38 PM
This is an excellent idea. Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow all have large areas of boarded up housing. Individuals couldn't move in but a collective theoretically could. Government should find this pretty easy and politically rewarding to support.
I have to rush out, more later...
Posted by: Richard Scott at Oct 31, 2003 1:09:06 PM
What's wrong with renting? Would providing cheap, high standard council flats not be more effective?
Posted by: Timo at Nov 6, 2003 9:57:37 PM
My plan is meant to address a peoples need - that is home ownership for people that currently cannot afford to buy a first home. There is nothing wrong with renting but I know that there is a whole class of people who want to move on from this but at the moment they have no way of doing so. With this plan I believe we can make use of a resource that has been currently neglected that is inner city houses, reinvigorate a previously neglected area/suburb and provide people with a stepping stone to owning there first home.
The only issue I see with this is that it does require a great deal of organisation (which is where the web site and its process would come in) and a committment for people to co-operate amongst each other. The overall effect would be extremely positive and result in people owning there first home where previously they would never be able to.
Posted by: Simon Demler at Nov 20, 2003 1:22:28 PM
HI, I'm a mortgage introducer. I would be delighted to help arrange funds for such a project; I can raise money for residential, commercial, indivuals or companies or groups.
Get back to me if you still want to do this!
All the best
Sandie
Posted by: Sandie Jones at Sep 18, 2007 7:36:30 PM
HI, I'm a mortgage introducer. I would be delighted to help arrange funds for such a project; I can raise money for residential, commercial, individuals or companies or groups.
Get back to me if you still want to do this!
All the best
Sandie
Posted by: Sandie Jones at Sep 18, 2007 7:38:44 PM