TfL is building tiny, affordable one-bed flats around London for priced-out first-time buyers
A series of “genuinely affordable” but tiny one-bedroom homes are set to pop up around the capital, marketed at buyers priced out of the housing market.
Single people or couples buying one of the 125 flats would own the entire property from day one, said Transport for London (TfL), which has partnered with private developer Pocket Living on the venture.
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The developer sells its homes at a discount of at least 20 per cent off the market rate, and buyers must earn less than £90,000 to be eligible to purchase a property – normally Pocket buyers earn an average £42,500 household income.
“Pocket Living is building a great reputation for high quality, genuinely affordable housing for first-time buyers, and will help us develop sites that would not otherwise come forward,” Graeme Craig, director of commercial development at TfL, said.
“This partnership marks another important step in us assembling the most important development pipeline in London – building thousands of social rented and other genuinely affordable homes across the capital and generating hundreds of millions of pounds to reinvest in the transport network.”
The homes are each 38 square metres in size, and buyers who earn too much to qualify for social housing but too little to buy in London’s expensive housing market can put their names down to buy a property in the borough where they live or work.
However, TfL has not yet confirmed where the homes will be based, or when they will become available.
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Marc Vlessing, chief executive of Pocket Living, said: “Pocket Living is delighted to be working with TfL to deliver homes Londoners desperately need.
“More affordable homes are crucial for London's city makers, its teachers, nurses and charity workers, who are currently priced out of the open market and salaried out of social housing.”