Saturday, Feb 13, 2010
Two £15m mansions in central London lying unoccupied - no wonder there's a shortage!
BBC News: Squatters move in to Park Lane
Squatters have taken over two £15m mansions on London's Park Lane.
The squats at 94 and 95 Park Lane overlook Hyde Park and have the Dorchester Hotel as a neighbour.
The group of about 30 artists, students and musicians took over the seven-story buildings about three weeks ago saying they had stood empty for two years.
Squatting is not illegal in England if the entry is not forced and no criminal damage is caused. It is believed the Duke of Westminster owns the buildings.
Posted by drewster @ 12:29 PM (1028 views) Add Comment
7 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. drewster said...
Although the article is a year old, the same properties were in the news this week because of a 2,000-guest "Facebook party".
Next time there's a government inquiry on housing, I'd like to see the Duke of Westminster hauled in front of a select committee to answer the question of why he leaves buildings like these unoccupied for two years.
2. hpwatcher said...
The building featured in the news this week had been empty for 10 years. Good luck to the squatters for bringing this scandal to the attention of the public.
3. sneaker said...
times are beginning to feel like 1982 (squat parties), 1988 (acid house break-in raves) and the early 90's (poll tax riots + illegal rave parties)
maybe this is the bottom of the economic trough?
4. drewster said...
Sneaker - It's far from the bottom. Unemployment is still surprisingly low; supported only by government borrowing. When they cut spending unemployment will rise. It's hard to be a squatter if you're holding down a day-job; but if you're unemployed then squatting is easier.
5. Mmeg said...
Shortage! The idea that there is a housing shortage is just complete spin so BTL's can convince themselves they are not speculating. If there was such a short supply of property then how do you explain that rents have fallen 14% in the last two years (see findaproperty rental index).
The differences between the number of households and the number of properties includes over a million living in commual accomodation; that includes students in halls of residence and pensioners in care homes. (see national statisics) So number is inherently overstated - do you believe that either of these either want or can afford there own property (demand must include abiity to pay or the demand for a jet planes is huge!!)
The UK have a compativley low average household size (2.4).compared to other countries : france 2.6, usa 2.6, italy 2.7 , japan 2.8 etc. (nationmaster.com ) Any differences between the number of properties and the number of households would be all but eliminated by a small shift the the average households size to say 2.5.
Wishful thinking you believe; not if you consider the million extra unemployed who will be financially forced to change their living habits, the people leaving the uk to avoid greater taxes, and the fall in the pound making the UK a much less attractive place to make some quick bucks.
The housing price crash has been stolen from us by a binge of spending by the government and the BOE via QE and the credit liquidity schema. Without either of these schemes the market would be toast. these scheme will stop or external demand higher returns to mitigate the risk of future inflation. And then at that point mortgages only need to become marginally higher for the average rental yield to go negative and the housing market POP. Just a matter of when; i say at least 6 months plus...
6. Peter Hun said...
Squatting is fine if you have a job, I did it for a couple of years.
7. Tochinoki said...
The spirit of revolution is strongest during financial down turns.
I was watching a program on 'the noughties' and realised that we've just had the most boring decade in history.
With any luck that's about to change.