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Professionals send Brixton property prices surging by 15%

tarannau said:
If anything, it was the transitory and slightly downtrodden nature of Brixton's housing stock that encouraged a bit of a community feel, from the squats to the need for folks to entertain on the street and the shebeens of the frontline. .
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Not my experience in Leander Road.

Tediously, predictably, it is the wealthier, owner types who organise street events (not shebeens!).

And the Josephine Avenue people say the same thing.
 
Manter said:
this is one of the reasons Brixton is SO attractive to people now- houses haven't been ruined by 'improvements'- they still have mouldings, fireplaces, stained glass, old doors- sure they have damp, rot, and more damage than you can shake a stick at, but the bones of them haven't been ruined by 70s and 80s 'improvements'. Think this, as well as the village etc etc makes it attractive now. and there are a lot of houses that can be bought as full houses (as lots of the flat conversions have been, um, rudimentary at best).
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I suspect that was more true 10 or more years ago. There was far more scope for making profits by refurbishing property, plus a far wider range of housing stock in all conditions. Now the current consistently high and higher rental prices point to more maturity and uniformity in the market.
 
leanderman said:
Not my experience in Leander Road.

Tediously, predictably, it is the wealthier, owner types who organise street events (not shebeens!).

And the Josephine Avenue people say the same thing.
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Street events aren't really the mark of a community like Brixton's though, surely. There are/were numerous creative venues on the doorstep, plus impromptu mobile sound rigs once were the order of the day. Somehow all that jubilee party and street art stuff seems more forced than an expression of a vibrant community
 
tarannau said:
Street events aren't really the mark of a community like Brixton's though, surely. There are/were numerous creative venues on the doorstep, plus impromptu mobile sound rigs once were the order of the day. Somehow all that jubilee party and street art stuff seems more forced than an expression of a vibrant community
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There is something in that.

But such events, however forced, have got neighbours talking who had never even said hello.
 
tarannau said:
I suspect that was more true 10 or more years ago. There was far more scope for making profits by refurbishing property, plus a far wider range of housing stock in all conditions. Now the current consistently high and higher rental prices point to more maturity and uniformity in the market.
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Absolutely. Not that many houses left in our road. Many three-flat conversions from 2005-2010.
 
tarannau said:
To be fair, the Millwall type has a vague point. There are very few folks on here who were born and bred anywhere near Brixton - back in the distant days of the past I remember some fruity arguments on here with InfoStella and others, slightly bemused that they showed such distaste for gentrifying incomers despite being drawn from much the same stock, albeit a few further years down the road. That's not say that I don't share some reservations about the rate of gentrification, but there's a slightly unhealthy belief from some that they're 'real Brixtons' - that the drawbridge should be pulled up after them/that the new types are generally feckless incomers with no taste or regard for the area's history. It all seems a bit artificial

On the whole I still don't think of most of the Urban 75ers on here as particularly typical of Brixton, a few long termers excepted. You could always spot the Urban gatherings sticking out like a bit of a sore thumb, rather than blending into the background of Brixton's locals and other venues.
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Yer....and I probably speak from an outsiders viewpoint, I've never lived in Brixton, nor really wanted to live anywhere other than Southwark, though I might soon, simply for convenience reasons. :D <awaits flaming>

I don't think there's anything wrong with moving somewhere because it's genuine, because it seems to have a community, it's whether that genuineness can be carried on, whether you integrate or look on in from outside, all the while feeling that you're part of it, when clearly you're not.

Still, my earlier point still stands, if more social housing was built, and squatting residentials hadn't been made illegal (with new empties being 'protected by occupation' and needing 3 months wage slips and references to get a room as a 'property guardian') Brixton might, just might carry on being so diverse. Instead it seems like the 'normal' people have to get a bus down the hill from the cheaper areas to still enjoy it.
 
leanderman said:
Absolutely. Not that many houses left in our road. Many three-flat conversions from 2005-2010.
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We looked at two on your road when we were looking, and Arodene, Claverdale, Craignair, Hillworth, Mackie, Coldharbour- there were some over the other side of Brixton Hill and loads in Stockwell too, but can't remember them all. We briefed the estate agents we wanted complete houses with orig features that needed love and a dab hand with a hammerdrill, and we were inundated. There are surprising numbers still out there- some of the 'conversions' into flats are just showers put in unlikely places, in my experience (behind the kitchen door in one place) but the owners would happily sell as a whole house
 
leanderman said:
There is something in that.

But such events, however forced, have got neighbours talking who had never even said hello.
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Heh. In years past we had to pretend to be out to stop neighbours and assorted other acquaintances popping in, often suspiciously close to meal times.

I guess I've been lucky with neighbours - I occasionally still bump into the same faces from decades past.
 
leanderman said:
A friend bought one like earlier this year that and has spent months tied up in the legal issues of it actually being two properties.
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a good lawyer is worth their weight in gold... Ours just sorted out a buy to let landlord who wanted to use our alleyway to access the back of his property so he could subdivide it further...

Hmmm. Dull property chat. I must be old
 
MillwallShoes said:
people have always been priced out of areas that they want to live in.

it's almost a conservative type of thinking to expect one small town in london to remain the same, with the same "locals", the same property prices. not going to happen, is it.
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Its a conservative type of thinking that believes that people have always been priced out of areas as though thats just how the world works. Like a natural phenomena.

Areas do change. See East London. East European Jewish immigration then the Bangladeshis. But what is happening to East London now is that new communities will not be able to live there. Its becoming to expensive.

Brixton has changed over time. There are now people here from South America, Eritrea and Algeria. They were not here when I first came here.

The problem is that , like East London, only the well off will be able to live here. That is what causes resentment. I have no problem with new people. That is what London is about. I have recently got to know a mainland Chinese woman recently and met someone from Saudi Arabia today. Who I had a nice chat with. I also now have East European friends. I adapt. However I cannot adapt to being priced out of an area.

The traditional London white working class ( I am not a born and bred Londoner) moved to places like Bromley because they could not deal with immigrants.
 
tarannau said:
I suspect that was more true 10 or more years ago. There was far more scope for making profits by refurbishing property, plus a far wider range of housing stock in all conditions. Now the current consistently high and higher rental prices point to more maturity and uniformity in the market.
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as is often the case, by and large I agree with your posts on this thread. but not, I think, with this one. There's still plenty of scope for profits. Over the period since the low point in the late 70s/early 80s a house in Clapham has appreciated in price approximately twice as much as a similar one in Brixton.

I'd suggest that while Clapham pretty much peaked and stabilised a few years back the main reason there's been so much churn in Brixton recently is that there's still widely thought to be profits to be made.
 
newbie said:
as is often the case, by and large I agree with your posts on this thread. but not, I think, with this one. There's still plenty of scope for profits. Over the period since the low point in the late 70s/early 80s a house in Clapham has appreciated in price approximately twice as much as a similar one in Brixton.

I'd suggest that while Clapham pretty much peaked and stabilised a few years back the main reason there's been so much churn in Brixton recently is that there's still widely thought to be profits to be made.
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Not sure the gap is being closed.

We came to Brixton in 2006 and have noted that properties we looked at in nearby areas have risen by much higher percentages.
 
Gramsci said:
I
The traditional London white working class ( I am not a born and bred Londoner) moved to places like Bromley because they could not deal with immigrants.
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Some did. Some others moved for work, or like my step-mums family - because the council house they were offered in Carshalton had facilities and space they couldn't have dreamed of in Battersea.
 
_angel_ said:
Our school didn't have a uniform. This was back in the 80s early 90s. Just as I was leaving they reintroduced it.
Eta: plenty of other ordinary comps did and do have smart uniform policies. Esp now.
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Keeps the riff-raff out, etc.
 
Manter said:
@greebo- come and take your fella in hand (fnarr fnarr etc) and stop him burning my house down with me in it
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Cba. With or without me there's no way he'd get as far as the main road, let alone your house.
 
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