File:One Remaining Goldmine ?.jpg

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19 December 2010. On the right, Emily Bowes Court, student housing.

In August 2010 Julia Kollewe's article in The Guardian newspaper explained why property developers saw student housing as: "a recession-proof investment". The article included this comment from James Moss, director at Curzon Investment Property, described as a "boutique investment agent".

"Student property has been the one remaining goldmine of the market these past years. It's a licence to print money because housing in university locations is often in short supply. The added incentive is that developers of such schemes get preferential planning treatment."

"But the reality is that poorer students are priced out, because these developments are created to serve the interests of shareholders – not students and communities. The government should really look to introduce price capping on such schemes to ensure that all students benefit from them."

My Comment

There will be no price-capping. The universities and their "partners" - companies running these blocks - will charge what the market will bear. And the market - usually of students from better-off families, or funded by foreign governments - has not dried up.

I suggest we also need to be sceptical about claims that students in these blocks will contribute to "regenerating" an area. This comment is not anti-student. At Tottenham Hale, Unite makes a major point of Emily Bowes Court's closeness to the station. As I've illustrated, at least until December 2010, Tottenham itself has been almost invisible in the sales pitch to students. Apart from mentioning the nearby Paddock and Lee Valley parks, location as a selling point is about the convenience of getting away - to colleges across London - and to more "stylish" areas closer to the centre.

"We free up spaces in houses in inner London ..."

Emily Bowes Court was officially opened in November 2009 by Richard Blakeway, Housing Advisor to Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London. The event was reported in the local Haringey Independent newspaper which quoted Mr Blakeway saying: "by building student accommodation in outer London, we free up spaces in houses in inner London that could be used as homes for families in overcrowded, temporary accommodation."

Which suggested an appalling ignorance about the enormous numbers of overcrowded, and poorly housed families in Haringey, and those who are homeless and in temporary housing. Nor, apparently had Mr Blakeway grasped the fact that Haringey, although funded as an Outer London borough, has all the problems of the inner ring of poorer boroughs.

Boosting the Economy

The Haringey independent also reported that students in Emily Bowes Court: " . . are also being tipped to boost the economy by spending their income at the nearby retail park which houses a Costa coffee shop, Lidl food store, chemist Boots and Staples stationery supplier."

Now that's what I call a boost! _____________________________________________

Links

§ Haringey Independent 'Beehive of arts students move in. § Article by Julia Kollewe: Blackstone's Nido Spitalfields is the latest student hall development § Article by Patrick Collinson and Rekha Jogia: The best and worst student accommodation.

§ The snow in the photo once covered a green area. Now a "regenerated" bleak asphalt nowhereville.