Not one but two articles in April’s Show House magazine about how affordable homes are increasingly filling the gaps left by repossession, high prices, and shrivelling mortgage lending. Richard Blakeway, the London Mayor’s Director of Housing, sees the affordable sector as the kick-start the housing market so desperately needs, with a shortage of tens of thousands of decent homes in the capital alone. He also points out what a major source of employment the housing industry is for London, potentially paying the wages of about 300,000 people. The affordable sector, according to Blakeway, is fulfilling housing need by being more flexible about finance for the homebuyer, is getting empty properties sold and in the process keeping many people in gainful employment.

In another piece, the magazine’s writer Simon Graham takes a slightly more downbeat approach, seeing affordable homes as a first-aid measure for those who’ve been unfortunate enough to be repossessed and are facing homelessness. The Government’s Mortgage Rescue Scheme and Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme will help a few of them but many more will have to join council housing lists and wait for a home to rent or part-buy.

In all this the Housing Associations are key, and in my opinion are no longer the Cinderellas of the housing market operating in the shadows of the big-name developers. In fact, in recent times we’ve seen almost all the big builders (including some of my own clients) using ‘affordable’ tactics to entice people to buy with variously-branded deferred equity schemes.

Housing Associations are meeting important needs, have excellent products and deserve first rate marketing expertise and collateral. It’s what we’ve been offering our ‘affordable’ clients all along and we are good at using the skills we’ve honed on the mainstream housing market. The ways to home ownership are becoming increasingly diverse, so the use of marketing skills which cross over from open market to affordable market are now vital in the drive for sales.

If you’d like to know more about BradleyDyer’s approach to the affordable homes sector, please give me a call on 01737 249479.