London agency Barnard Marcus has secured what is believed to be a record sale price for a former council flat - a cool £1.21m.
The two bedroom unit on Tavistock Street in Covent Garden is part of the ex-council mansion block Siddons Court and sold after just six weeks on the market.
The sale comes just a few months after the previous most expensive former council flat in London, on Fulham Road above the Stella McCartney store, came on to the market at £1,15m.
The Tavistock Street apartment was originally a council flat that was bought off the council in 1990 under the Right to Buy scheme for £130,000; the vendor was the same person who bought it 25 years ago.
Barnard Marcus, perhaps with a mind to recent criticism of Right To Buy fuelling the private rental market, has emphasised that the purchaser is an owner-occupier and not an investor. The asking price was £1.35m.
“We understand that many of the properties are still council owned but not sure what the split is between private and council” says a spokesperson for the agent.
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Ridiculous. Thatcher's RTB legacy, ladies and gentleman! And the current jokers we have in charge want to bring it back. You couldn't make it up.
The owner made almost ten times the original amount for selling an ex-local flat? that's crazy!! Really good deal although!!
What a result for the vendor. Although Rob I can understand your disquiet. A different kettle of fish altogether but I saw on the news last night a flat overlooking the NY skyline which sold for over $100m, wow!
Saw that too, John. Everything that is wrong with the world, in a nutshell!
Might sound like sour grapes, and it probably is, but you can't honestly tell me any home is worth $100m. Surely?
Really good deal, courtesy of them doing absolutely nothing to warrant it! A return on their investment of 800%. That's just barmy.
Purely through luck, market conditions and taking advantage of Maggie's flawed RTB policy, they've made an absolute mint off the property. People will say you can't begrudge them the money, but I can. What have they done to earn that money? To be fair, it's not their fault, it's our ridiculously overblown housing market that is to blame, but still.
"With central London property prices at a premium, and with demand for properties far outstripping supply, we weren’t surprised that this former council flat reached this impressive price."
Barnard Marcus, to their credit, understand why the market is as mad as it is. But, of course, nothing will be done about it by our current government. How many of those new homes they promised have they built? How many are affordable? How's all that construction on brownfield sites going? We need actions, not wishy-washy words.
This, too, is exactly what will happen if RTB is persisted with - council-owned property will end up in the hands of rich, greedy BTL landlords. Wonderful.
Wow, that's some return on their investment! If I can get anywhere close to that with some of my properties, I'll be laughing.
Good luck to them. They brought at the right time and have benefited hugely from it. Not surprising, given how prime the location is, but still a fantastic price.
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