Winchester council is setting up its own agency to let and manage privately rented homes.
Venta Living pledges to provide “high quality, energy efficient homes offering assured short-term tenancies and a wider choice of new homes for private renters across the district.”
The first homes available will be within the Winnall Flats redevelopment where 41 one-bedroom flats will be available to rent privately through Venta Living Limited.
The new homes have been built by Wates Construction, who built the existing four blocks back in the 1960s.
A council spokesperson says: “I’m proud of this council’s focus to provide homes for all, and we are very aware of the need for more high quality privately rented homes in our district. The creation of Venta Living Ltd allows us to offer high quality, secure short-term tenancies for people who choose to rent privately.
“We care about the quality of the homes, and we care about the wider sense of community. Our homes are designed with this in mind with the public space and landscaping carefully designed for people.
"The homes are very energy efficient, so not only will they be warm and comfortable – they'll save people money on their bills too. I really look forward to these homes becoming a popular and comfortable place for people in our district to live.”
In addition to the 41 rented apartments, the remaining 35 properties on the 76-home development will also include three two-bedroom houses and 32 one and two bed flats which will be sold through shared ownership.
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So a bit like a mini quango for the Council then. Jobs for the boys and girls.
Assured short-term tenancies? I thought that they were being abolished.
Just nipped on their website and 1 bed flat 1k per month...
Think there is a lot of potential there for this to be aimed at the upwardly mobile crowd and not the families with dogs and cats and the inability to open a window.
Shame. Kind of makes my comment below redundant. 😔
At this point I feel we should be giving credit to any council that is making real steps to provide housing. One bed homes make good starting point for people to get their life in or.der.
The test will come when in a few years when they are either well managed and being used for a while for the purpose or a) full of single mums who have had 3 more kids and claiming over crowding, b) full of mould as people are not taught to take care of them, or c) turned into a ghetto of drug and alcohol users.
In 10 years they could all be sold off under right to buy.
Personally, I hope it works out as iincreasing good social housing is the main way out of the problems we have now.
Most of these BTR will blocks will end up as council estates in the sky just as they were back in the 60's and 70's Emily. A shame but I can only see developers making money off this and heading for the hills. Watch how many former ministers up on the boards of these companies.
They will be gettos sink estates in the sky
Is this just a way for a council to charge more for rent than they would usually be allowed?
Maybe Councils should let out one bedroomed properties for nothing and not charge them for damage that may happen during their tenancy. So that these tenants can save to get a mortgage.
After all, that is what most Councils expect Private Landlords to do.
A council running a letting agency. What could possibly go wrong?
How many councils have tried this and failed? The problem is that they are not a business, not accountable etc etc. Last year 1 council had a similar offering, on their website they had 3 or 4 properties showing as let agreed and had 4 staff and a manager in the office!
Because Venta Housing a corporate in effect they will probably be allowed to have fixed term tenancies. I am sure they will be exempt from the usual rules and regulations in the PRS.
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