Remember an earlier article about some Londoners blaming foreigners for owning too many parcels of lands in London and thus are pushing up the prices of properties in Londoner to become homeless? Read here: Londoners, homeless. Malaysian caused? That was not the last of the actions by the Londoners against these foreign developers which in this case happen to be Malaysian owned. A British daily, The Guardian said that the Battersea Power Station in London is beyond the reach of the locals as these units are for rich foreigners. It reported that the first phase of 865 flats were mostly sold to buyers from Asia.
After this first phase, the second phase of 254 homes were marketed only in London but the third phase of more than 500 apartments are again targeted at foreign investors in Tokyo, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. This was also followed up by “celebrity-studded launch parties” in New York and Los Angeles. These allegations were denied by Battersea Power Station Development Company chief executive Rob Tincknell. He explained that of the 1,300 homes sold to date, two-thirds were bought by UK purchasers. Anyway, the locals continue to complain and said that the project serves only the rich and lamented the shortage of affordable properties in Battersea area. The Guardian also reported that of the 3,444 new homes, only 16% of 560 are considered deemed affordable.
Now let’s listen a famous and popular personality, London’s mayor Boris Johnson. He said, “600 hundred affordable homes are better than no affordable homes”. Besides these units, the developers of Battersea are also paying 200 million pounds towards the cost of extending the London Underground to serve the development.
Actually, truth is, without this Battersea redevelopment project, the whole area would still not be developed and the 560 affordable units as well as the extension of the London underground would also not happen. As for this redevelopment project, no developer would buy a piece of land for a huge amount and use it to build affordable units. Not in Battersea, not in Kuala Lumpur and not anywhere in the world. Let’s be very savvy about this. Businesses exist for profits. Fortunately, London has an objective mayor in Boris Johnson. You can read about him here: Wiki Boris Johnson
written on 2 March 2015
Next suggested article: Battersea, London. 13x bigger than one year Penang new launches
Leave a Reply