BBC's "Homes under the Hammer" is daytime TV at its best, with perma-tanned presenters chit chatting with property developers who buy up homes, inject a bit of razzmatazz and then flog them on for a profit. You normally see someone spend just over their projected budget, tackle some issue with the house and then realise a tidy sum at the property auctioneers. It's standard fare for the programme.
What isn't standard fare for the programme, however, is finding properties that are being flogged off by a local authority, in this case our own H&F Council selling a ground floor flat in Shepherd's Bush for £180,000 - who then insist that the buyer cannot actually live there themselves. They will only agree to sell an H&F home to someone who is either going to sell it on done-up, rent it out, or just flog it on as it is.
Why would they do that? As the presenter explains, click here to watch, "This restrictive clause is essentially a way for the Council to keep all the money made from the sale. If the buyer lived in the flat the government would receive 75% of the capital. So it's good for the council but of course that does limit its attraction to buyers."
Well, yes.
And limit its attractions to those of us who think our Council might be doing a little bit more to help the thousands of those in our borough who are homeless or in need of larger accommodation, perhaps? But what's £180,000 between friends.
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