Demand for new affordable homes at the former Allerton Fire Station has been “through the roof” and illustrates why the country must be more ambitious about housebuilding, according to the association behind the development.
The former Allerton Fire and Police Station on Mather Avenue in South Liverpool has been . The £8m development, called Station Mews, includes two three-bedroom and three four-bedroom townhouses in the former fire station’s garage, as well as two three-bedroom semi-detached houses and 40 apartments in other buildings on the site.
All of the houses have already been reserved but the apartments are available through shared ownership, with full prices starting at £165,000. A 25% share of a one-bed apartment costs £41,250 with £283.59 monthly rent on top.
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About the development, Torus managing director Chris Bowen told the ECHO: “Demand here has been through the roof. Demand for social housing and affordable housing nationally is enormous and nowhere near enough affordable homes are being built anywhere – particularly in this city region.
“For the accommodation that we’ve got here, we could have sold these 100 times over. That’s the level of demand.
“It’s sad that we can’t accommodate the ambitions of everyone to live around here, sites are in short supply. But those who do get one I think will be very grateful for the opportunity.”
Across the country, 1m million households are waiting for social homes, according to Shelter. The charity states that, last year, 29,000 social homes were sold or demolished and fewer than 7,000 were built.
As a result, in England, there are now 1.4 million fewer households living in social housing than there were in 1980.
The Financial Times reported in January that the last time that UK house prices were as expensive in comparison to earnings as they are now was 1876. It added that, between the 1910s and 1990s, average house prices were around four times average earnings. Now, average house prices are approaching ten times average earnings.
Mr Bowen said: “There’s an issue that house prices in this part (the south) of the city are probably seven or eight times people’s income. We’ve seen interest rates rise, we’ve seen mortgage rates rise.
“The need for subsidised and low-cost home ownership, like shared-ownership and rent to buy is important and that’s what we’re focusing on. Until the supply of accommodation increases, demand is never going to be fully met.
“We don’t build enough homes nationally. The government’s targets historically have been around 300,000 a year – I think last year, it was around 230,000 homes nationally.
“With the population growing and household numbers growing, and an ageing population looking for appropriate accommodation, it’s a massive challenge. We build as much as we can – we’ll build in excess of 800 homes this year.
“Our programme next year will be more like 1,200 or 13,00, we’ve got some schemes like the Extra Care projects in Rock Ferry, we’ve got a major apartment block by Bramley-Moore Dock. We’ve got to keep going in difficult times.”
New housing supply is currently lower than the government’s ambition of 300,000 homes to be built each year. Mr Bowen believes that greater ambition is required to make meaningful strides to address the housing crisis.
He said: “You’ve got to go back to the post-war period when housing was probably at its boon. Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, a lot of the estates that we see now were being built.
“We’ve never really got back to that position. It’s not a new crisis – even in the 1950s, the government was talking about needing 300,000 homes a year.
“They’re saying the same figure now but there are another 10m people living in the country, so it’s a real challenge.”
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