Council buys up seven homes to ease wait times
PROPERTIES ARE IN HIGH-DEMAND AREAS
SEVEN more properties are being purchased and renovated by Derby City Council, at a cost of more than £1.15 million, in order to boost its housing stock.
Four of them, comprising a variety of one bedroom through to three bedroom properties, have been approved for purchase this week at a cost of £576,805, including costs and renovation.
The other three – all three-bedroom semi-detached homes in Alvaston, costing £583,044 in total with costs and repairs – were approved for purchase last month. This brings the total spend for the seven homes to £1,159,849.
The most recent approvals include a 2003 three-bedroom house in Spondon, costing £184,437 in total, which needs to have electrical work including an upgrade to heating and smoke detectors, a new patio door and an external side gate.
Also among them is a 1960 twobedroom apartment in Darley ward (£104,480), which needs a new boiler, electrical installation
and kitchen, and a 2011 two bedroom house in Derwent (£139,227) which mainly needs the windows overhauled and electrical installation.
The four properties also include a 1980 one-bedroom house at Chellaston, which has been bought for £115,000 but will need to have almost £30,000 spent on it to bring it up to standard, including installing gas central heating, new kitchen, potential replacement of all fencing and gates and possible rewiring. Costs and fees bring the total price of the property up to £148,611.
The reports on the properties, which will be managed by Derby Homes, says there is high demand for affordable accommodation in these locations on the waiting list.
As all seven of the properties require modernisation, they cannot be sold for less than the cumulative total spend – both buying and renovating – for 15 years from the date of acquisition.
A total of 30% of the funding for all of the properties’ acquisition and refurbishment can be subsidised by Right to Buy cash that the authority has from homes that have already been sold.
The rest will come from the council’s housing revenue funding, which comes from central Government.
There are up to 4,000 people at any time waiting for homes on the city council’s waiting list.
There are also more than 1,100 privately-owned empty homes in the city, which the council has been buying up where possible, or compulsorily purchasing, over the past couple of years.
Additionally, the council is increasingly required to find homes for bigger families, of which there are up to 180 at any one time on the Derby Homefinder waiting list.
In order to access Derby Homefinder, applicants must have a link to the city through a residency or an employment connection.