Speaking at Investec Private Banking’s Broker Insight Evening last week, Cook reckoned Khan will struggle to make 50% of all new homes affordable and establish a not-for-profit lettings agency.
New London mayor Sadiq Khan (pictured above) won’t deliver on all his election promises but will still build more affordable homes than former mayor Boris Johnson managed, Savills residential research director Lucian Cook has predicted.
Speaking at Investec Private Banking’s Broker Insight Evening last week, Cook reckoned Khan will struggle to make 50% of all new homes affordable and establish a not-for-profit lettings agency.
In Boris Johnson’s eight years as mayor of London some 23,840 homes were built per annum.
Cook said: “I think a lot of the things Khan has put forward are going to be very, very difficult to put to bed.
“I don’t think he will be able to achieve 50% affordable homes on new development because that would seize up the development pipeline and would be counterproductive.
“However some homes are better than no homes and I suspect he will have a better record on the delivery of mainstream and affordable homes than Boris.”
And Cook thought Khan’s London Living Rent plan, which promises a new form of affordable housing with rent based on a third of average local income, has some potential.
He said: “London Living Rent is really interesting. Assuming that doesn’t mean a rent cap for private landlords which would be an utter disaster that’s effectively creating a new sort of tenure.
“I am sceptical as to whether ‘starter homes’ will work well within London to provide that new form of affordable housing and I’m quite sceptical about Help to Buy London.
“I think a 40% equity loan is quite a big chunk – you’ve got to be quite brave to go into that when you know what’s going to happen at the end of the 5-year period.
“The London Living Rent proposition has some legs but he’s got to find the operators to run it and land values have to adjust to it.”
But he warned: “He will never deliver a not for profit lettings agency across London and if he does it will be the most inefficient thing since the invention of the utility company.”
