‘Housing for All’. If By ‘All’ You Mean Foreign Investors

I live in London. It probably won’t be a surprise to you if I told you that the housing situation is madness here. I went through the gruelling process of trying to rent and buy in this city, and I shouldn’t be shocked when I see gentrification stories like this one. But it still angers me enough to want to share it with you.

My bus into town passes Elephant and Castle, and I am often amazed at the sheer amount of shiny flats that are being built just about anywhere along the last part of the route. The Heygate Estate is only one of many places where council estates had to make way for new housing projects.

In Heygate, things didn’t go smoothly or fairly. It was demolished back in 2014, and many tenants were forcibly evicted from their homes, given compensation at less than 40 percent of the market value. But Londoners were told not to worry: there would be a beautiful new development with affordable, accessible homes for all of those desperate to get on the property ladder.

But, as this story highlights: as the first properties hit the market, all sold so far have been bought by foreign investors.

And worst of all: 'Not only are all of the buyers of the new South Gardens foreign investors; from the 51 bought so far, many appear to be offshore — untraceable and untaxable. Every single one of the 51 purchases made is listed as "care of 2 Tower Street, WC2H 9NP"'.

As the report uncovers, that address is the office address of solicitor Riseam Sharples, who appears to have been given exclusive use for all sales.

The frustrating thing about stories like this is that the “what now” question remains unanswered. For me and my family, it’s one more tick on the “let’s leave this place” list.