Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson calls for affordable homes for Londoners as two thirds of new homes are now sold to investors.
Graffiti of ‘Homes For Locals’ down a British street, photograph courtesy of CGP Grey.
The ITEM club has published a report stating that new homes being built in London are “expensive” and that they will still be bought by “well-paid Londoners or foreign investors”, who will “keep driving prices strongly upwards”. Research commissioned by the GLA found that two thirds of new homes are bought by investors, and that the average first-time buyer in London is now in the top 20 per cent of incomes.
Darren commented, “Building expensive homes for the super-rich is just helping to drive up house prices and rents for everyone else. The Mayor has to start building homes for Londoners instead of homes for investors.”
“We need property and land taxes to dampen demand from the super-rich, a much higher level of investment in affordable housing, and regulations to protect those left renting privately from investor landlords.”