Easing London’s Housing Crisis
It’s now four years since I bought this house.
It had been built rather badly by a company called Back Street Developments about ten years ago and there seemed to be no NHBRC registration for it. In the intervening years the previous owners had put tenants in, and they had done there best to wreck it. The owner obviously skimped on maintenance, but then all these facts were reflected in the price I paid.
Some time ago, I started to get the house straight. Finding a builder has been a nightmare!
The first builder walked away from the job after personality clashes between the owner and his work-force, leaving me without a bathroom.
I’ve got one coming in fom outside London, things seem a bit better.
An illustration of the problem is that people locally are always asking, if I know a good builder. I also want to sort my dreadful kitchen. I have asked several companies to look at it and not one has ever made a fixed appointment or even turned up.
I suspect that kitchen companies would prefer to fit out some multi-millionaire’s house in Mayfair, rather than my small kitchen.
I do wonder how many properties are not lived in, as the owners are waiting for a builder to sort it out. And how many people are put off downsizing, as theycan’t be bothered to go through all the hassle of finding a builder.
So if we sorted out the refurbishment of small and medium sized properties, would we release more properties for occupation?
The first thing we should do is to seriously analyse the homes market and identify why properties are empty or under-occupied!
Any soutions we propose should of course be nationwide, as I don’t believe this is just a London problem.
The Anonymous Widower 
We had our house double glazed and work done on soffits and fascia boards etc. by Everest. They were excellent and we would use them again – they do kitchens. Being a big national company they may be willing to do a small kitchen – they aren’t the cheapest but the quality of workmanship was excellent, the guys doing it were great and respectful of our home and ourselves.
Comment by nosnikrapzil | July 28, 2014 |