Bare Naked Interior Houses Could Be Answer to London Housing Problem
The London housing market is going to have a new option for those willing to start off with a basic apartment and do the decorating themselves. The new concept is being backed by a £500,000 grant and according to London’s mayor Sadiq Khan, the apartments will cost buyers 40% less than a standard new build. This could be the opportunity those shut out of the housing market in London need.
The price tag will be between £150,000 and £340,000. There will be bare walls and floors and it will truly be a shell of a home, but the buyers can then add to the property as they can afford to do so. They can customize the home interior as they desire and in doing so increase the equity of the property.
The homes will have functioning bathrooms and kitchen sinks, but there will be no partitioning walls.
The lower cost does not involve purchase of the land, but instead there will be an annual rental fee for the land paid to the council. This, too, holds down cost of the property.
The group receiving the grant to build the homes, of which there will be 22 to start are calling the homes “Naked House”. The first apartments will be built on three sites in Enfield, north London. If the homes sell successfully, there will be seven other sites that will have Naked House builds. The first homes should be available on the market by 2020 with priority to buyers working and already living in Enfield.
The plan is to offer home ownership with buyers only paying a third of their gross income toward a mortgage.
Mayor Khan remarked on the project saying, “Community-led housing offers the chance to build new homes Londoners that want to live in. Londoners should be able to play a leading role in building their own communities, but for too long this has been difficult and they have had no support or access to funding.”
Photo credit: NakedHouse.org