What the UK’s ‘broken’ housing market could learn from Australia

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Britain is missing a key type of property, but the introduction of strata title on a wider scale could simplify housing and make it more accessible in the UK.

Its residential skyscrapers stretch as high as Singapore’s, its pre-war apartment blocks stand on par with those of New York and its row houses fetch prices that rival San Francisco’s. But there is something conspicuously missing from London’s red-hot housing market.

Yet at a moment when record housing prices are colliding with a cost-of-living crisis, politicians, campaigners and a small but passionate group of homeowners are looking to commonhold as a solution to what the government itself has called a “broken” housing market. Roberts discovered this type of property ownership largely by accident. He had been living on the south coast, but hoped to move to Yorkshire to be closer to his daughter, who found a two-bed, two-bath unit in the market town of Pickering, about 40 kilometres north-east of York.“We quite quickly warmed to the idea,” says Roberts.England’s homeownership system can befuddle foreigners and locals alike. It’s generally split into three forms: freehold, leasehold and commonhold.

Also problematic for early residents of those divided-up townhouses was how to require everyone to pay for repairs and maintenance of common areas. Leasehold solved some of these problems, but the property is still ultimately owned and controlled by the freeholder.This is why activists often call leasehold “feudal” or even “medieval.” Under a commonhold system, by contrast, the residents own and control the communal property and can make decisions by democratic vote.

This prompted the country’s Competition and Markets Authority to investigate unfair contract terms and the potential mis-selling of homes to leaseholders. The agency ultimately forged agreements with several developers to remove onerous annual payments.

Housing supply in Britain is tight, and there are concerns that a shift toward an Australian-style strata model could discourage development and increase prices. Sceptics also argue that a fundamental shift in the way property is owned should be implemented slowly.Others ask about the viability of a system that’s been available in the country for decades but has not been widely adopted.

 

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