Landlords claim curb on student homes will drive up rents
A pressure group representing landlords claims moves to curb the spread of shared student homes in Bath will drive up rents while cutting house prices.
The 15,000-strong Residential Landlords' Association is urging Bath and North East Somerset Council to abandon any interest in using the planning system to discourage the conversion of family homes into student accommodation.
But politicians in Oldfield Park, where student houses dominate some streets, say the organisation is being alarmist.
Council officials are studying whether it would be worthwhile to use planning legislation to make it harder to convert homes to cater for the city’s expanding university population.
Councillors from both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties have backed the idea of investigating the use of what is known as an Article 4 Direction to force landlords to apply for planning permission for such conversion work in certain parts of the city.
Such a direction makes it necessary for planning consent to be obtained for developments that do not normally need such approval, and could help combat the so-called studentification of areas such as Oldfield Park.
The Coalition Government scrapped Labour’s plans for national moves to restrict houses in multiple occupation – soon after taking power.
At the moment, planning permission is not needed to convert a property from use as a single unit to become a house in multiple occupation with between three and six tenants who are not related.
The RLA says that in other areas where extra restrictions have been imposed, owner-occupiers have seen the value of their property fall by as much as a third because of the perception that they will never be able to get planning permission in the future for a change of use.
Its chairman Alan Ward said: “Small houses in multiple occupation have an important role to play in housing the increasing number of students attending university, and many young professionals, such as nurses, for whom home ownership is simply unaffordable.
“Actions by the council to restrict the availability of much-needed housing for mainly young people will not only deny them the chance to live where they want, but will also drive up rents whilst at the same significantly cutting house prices in the designated area.
“Experience elsewhere clearly demonstrates that where a house is no longer able to be used flexibly as a family property or a small HMO, its value faces falling by up to a third. Many owners will be worried at such a steep drop in the value of their single biggest asset.”
The association said local authorities should “work with tenants, student unions, landlords and the police to better educate tenants on their responsibilities to the community.”
The council would argue it already does this via the Student Community Partnership which is chaired by its own leader Councillor Francine Haeberling.
Oldfield Park councillor Will Sandry (Lib Dem, Oldfield) said he thought the association’s claims were “quite alarmist”.
He said: “The Bath area has a really resilient property market and it’s important to say that anything that is done would not be retrospective.
“We realise that there is a need for HMOs, but a significant number of my area’s residents want some sort of restriction.”
He said something had to be done to protect family accommodation, and acknowledged that more purpose-built student blocks may be needed both on campus and elsewhere in the city.
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by anil, sw10
Friday, February 11 2011, 12:02PM
“JC - apart from the "armed robbery" bit - everything else you describe fits Bath perfectly. Naturally, to be racially abused in bath, you'd have to be yellow, brown or black - 97 per cent of Bath's population is white. Only those wishing full-scale civil disturbances would do this the other way round. Hopefully, due to high student population, OP has a better racial mix.
I remember telling my children some years ago who encountered a full " foreigners taking over our country" conversation near orange grove that if one lives in a small place with the same type of people, this is an inevitable consequence...
Eccentric or not, if the govt pays me all the pensions I contributed to in the UK for nearly 4 decades, I'd gladly go back to my country of origin. I know the stumbling blocks others have encountered trying to do this.
Transport is better and cheaper as there's a state and private sector. fuel is cheaper. For what a one-bedroom hovel costs in Bath, you could buy a 10-bedroomed house. landlords who neglect property or overcharge face prison sentences and universities are almost totally under govt control. By comparison, Bath seems like a place that had it all, but lost.
It's only a short time before eastern economies will be the ones to be reckoned with. I'm looking forward to the day when I can relax in a beach-bar with friends and say:" guess what, I got a British call centre the other day when I rang about my mobile. Couldn't understand a word the person was saying. Must be from Bath...." ;-)”
by JC, Bath
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 4:52PM
“Anil - At the risk of sounding like you, some of the people were pretty Bronze-age! Traffic, pollution, armed robberies, unsafe streets, couple of arson attacks nearby, boyfriend racially abused. Normal London life :-)
OMG, rogerh is right, I'm becoming the Bath version of Anil! Anyone got the number for Dignitas?”
by LIttle Buttercup, Bath
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 4:48PM
“@ rogerh: I love that - the increasingly eccentric anil - who then kindly provides a post which proves your point!”
by anil, sw10
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 12:23PM
“It's not that far-fetched an idea, is it? See Coventry university London Campus
Bath Spa uni in particular, will have a lot to gain. Universities can grow without 'bothering' the people of Bath. OP can stay the same. RW can be transformed into a Georgian Leisure park.
Meanwhile, London will gain lots of bright, on-the-whole young, people. That is a great advantage.
JC - sorry to hear about uxbridge. I have only worked there; living reality may well be different. From what I saw, it wasn't bad. I remember they found some bronze age stuff when building the shopping centre...”
by rogerh, Bath
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 10:20AM
“What are you going on about? I haven't mentioned your grammar. You're making as little sense as the increasingly eccentric anil.
And of course much of the problem lies elsewhere, especially with successive governments. And, yes, it would be lovely if Western Riverside was something else. There's only so much within the power of local councillors, though. At least they're trying to do something rather than just sitting on the sidelines belittling the efforts of others.”
by JC, Bath
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 8:08AM
“rogerh - Thanks for the pointless negative sniping at one sentence that may not be grammatically brilliant. One reason why students like living around OP is that the University busses run this way, and being a student area, it offers a degree of safety and 'student communiity'. Put a boundary around OP, and, if demand is there, the areas just outside the zone will become ideal targets for investors. Maybe if you read my posts with an open mind you might spot things like - "I think that adding more to Western Riverside would have been a good idea, as it might free up Oldfield Park houses, as I suspect that there is significantly more demand for those than the ghastly high-rise flats planned for WR". Might that not be a more effective solution? I stand by my assertion that the Article 4 on its own will achieve very little other than add an un-necessary restriction on a few homeowners, and probably not make one real jot of difference.
Now, how about commenting on the real issues raised, like should there be more student accommodation on WR, and would this do more to free up OP homes? Will student housing demand drop anyway because of fees? Will demand for HMO¿s rise amongst the younger working population because of poor Government housing policy? Will a number of OP homeowners be tempted to ¿cash in¿ ahead of this being passed? Will this actually achieve anything other than a headline in LibDem election leaflets? Is it too little, too late? Is my grammar good enough for you now?
Anil ¿ Looking at London prices, and based on my daughters experiences in Uxbridge ¿ No thanks.”
by anil, sw10
Wednesday, February 09 2011, 12:44AM
“One of the better ways of dealing with this 'problem' is to send students to London. Most universities here are in the top 10, the city and suburbs can absorb a large student population. Practically every area is mixed; HMOs abound. Change occurs daily.
Even if you have to live a bit further away, transport connections and student discounts to use them are good. It all balances out well.”
by rogerh, Bath
Tuesday, February 08 2011, 9:47PM
“"So, if there is growing demand for HMO's, investors will look for homes elsewhere in Bath to convert to HMO's."
Surely that's part of the point. The intention is not to prevent students living in Bath but to avoid a concentration of student (or non-student) HMOs in one location. It would be just as undesirable if one area of the city was dominated by pensioners or families with young children, etc. A mixed neighbourhood has many advantages and it's perfectly right that a community should be able to encourage its preservation or creation through the planning process.
"Sorry if you don't agree with me, but I think that my arguments are perfectly coherent."
"totally pointless, bit of tinkering, one of those knee-jerk policies, short-term brownie points, sounds like tokenism, petty restriction which will achieve little..."”
by Little Buttercup, Bath
Tuesday, February 08 2011, 9:06PM
“I'm puzzled that some people think that those of us critical of the landlords are in some way anti-student. As far as I am concerned, nothing could be further from the truth I would much rather live next door to some cheery students than a miserable old person - which, sadly, I do. But I thought I had made it clear that I think the students are being ripped off by these caring sharing landlords, as well as the local community suffering by being turned from a mixed community into Bedsit City, which sits empty from June to September. The universities should take a greater interest in what's going on and provide more accommodation for students. As we have seen, they are happy to back unpopular plans such as the BRT for their own selfish interests but don't want to do anything for the community and their own students. As VV says - some of these places are dives. Near where I live - which isn't Oldfield Park - the latest students' parents were so disgusted at what they found in the house, they hired a skip and cleared the rubbish out. Paint is used to cover a multitude of sins, including mould. Why aren't the universities checking out the accommodation?”
by JC, Bath
Tuesday, February 08 2011, 8:27PM
“rogerh - Sorry if I made it sound complicated. Oldfield Park needs planning permission. That is an extra hassle. So, if there is growing demand for HMO's, investors will look for homes elsewhere in Bath to convert to HMO's. In case you have not twigged, because there will be no hassle for planning permission.
Sorry if you don't agree with me, but I think that my arguments are perfectly coherent. Feel free to counter with your own coherent argument.
Just for the record, my family have lived in this house since 1958, I'm not bothered about house prices as I have no plans to move in the near future.”