Building Brentford’s community?
I may be late to this party, but bear with me…I was watching the news item on the proposed Ballymore development for a 51 storey tower block (with only one stairwell) near Canary Wharf this evening. They included a clip of the 19 storey Ballymore development in East London where a fire took place last May. In the corner of the screen, I spotted a branch of Johns & Co, the same estate agent that opened in the High Street a few months ago. I had a lightbulb moment. A quick Google revealed that Johns & Co was founded by the former international sales director of… Ballymore. I found this: -‘But John Morley is looking to change all that. Previously head of international sales at Ballymore, Morley set up his own management company, Johns & Co, to help take care of the growing number of investor landlords he felt were being dealt a bad hand by the market.One way he set out to differentiate himself was to provide management of the property ahead of completion. “Investors can buy off plan up to three years ahead,” he notes, “so we do a lot of hand holding.” He helps landlords with important decisions along the way to do with finishes, insurance, and tax. Morley also arranges handovers, checks snagging and arranges furnishing, before finding a suitable tenant.Having sold more than 1,000 apartments to buyers in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, Morley had a good understanding of the support those investors needed. Yet while the majority of buyers were once overseas investors, he says the market has changed significantly since 2012, and now around half of buyers in need of his services are UK investors.’ - City A.M. Thursday 12 May 2016Draw your own conclusions, but - unsurprisingly - the notion that Ballymore is striving to build a vibrant community in TW8 rings pretty hollow. It seems to confirm that it’s all about overseas investment leading to transient occupancy and a dormitory town centre. Meanwhile, the Duke of London community - a diverse, organically-grown collection of interesting small businesses (and EXACTLY what the area needs) - is due to be flattened, in order to build yet more flats and unaffordable retail units. In all probability, they will never be occupied. It’s just horribly depressing.
Tracie Dudley Craig ● 1198d5 Comments ● 1197d