New York housing comes to UK

An innovative housing project, new to the UK, that aims to bring together landlords, new low income home owners as well as private tenants, has been launched by the Riverside Group.

Originally established by The New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development in the 1980s, the 'Brownstone' project is being piloted in Kensington, Liverpool. it aims to increase affordable and sustainable home ownership and better management of private sector rented accomodation.

The principle behind the initiative is that large, run down houses will be converted into good quality apartments.

The owner of the whole house is required to live in one apartment and can rent out the other apartments to assist with mortgage payments. This creates a caring stakeholder landlord as opposed to an absentee, portfolio owning, poor management landlord.

The project has been short-listed by the Housing Corporation under the Northern Housing Challenge, launched to promote new housing-led projects which will help shrink the North's annual £30 billion output shortfall compared to the South, stimulate creative thinking and generate innovation.

Two Brownstone houses, which were previously three hard to let social rented flats, have been transformed into high quality apartments to be sold on to two buyers. If successful the scheme will move on to a further 35 properties as well as other towns and cities in the north.

Tom McGuire, Director of Community Seven, the subsidiary of The Riverside Group which will be delivering the project, said:

"The attraction of the Brownstone scheme is that it can tackle the problems of a specific housing type, found in most of the Pathfinder areas and other northern towns and cities.

He added:

"These larger properties present unique challenges for Housing Market Renewal Initiatives and other regeneration schemes. They are frequently low demand and alternative uses such as multiple occupation can bring anti-social behaviour problems to neighbourhoods."

The houses are expected to go on sale later this month.