Cost of homes in Brixton have risen by 76% in the last five years and are still going up, as Brixton has become one of the most fashionable spots in London.
Property hotspots have merged in every corner of Brixton. Flats sell for more than £5000,00 and some houses can cost three times that. Property prices have increased wildly, as according to research, cost of housing in the last five years has increased by 76 per cent. And still increasing till this date, rising by 3.5 per cent in the past year, while housing in prime Central London have dropped by 7 per cent.
However, currently many family homes are still costing less than £1m, which is at a much lower price range, as some parts of London are much more expensive. Nonetheless the locals don’t view it this way.
Locals have complained about the “ridiculous pricing of housing” say’s Rochelle, a 25-year-old student renting in Brixton, she added, “I pay over £1600 a month for a one bedroom and I’m really struggling to pay for other essentials”. A lot of people that have lived in Brixton for numerous years have moved away as the pricing is not suitable for their budget.
The Influx of wealthy, young, primarily white professionals, who are bringing with them a movement of posh cafés has caused apprehension among some older locals. As Brixton has been the centre of black culture in Britain since 1948, who have fought and built the community into something that wasn’t before. The local council have now given their triumphs to the white professionals. Hence the difficulty for a less fortunate, Black British citizen to own their own home but stuck in the struggle cycle that is-council.
Henceforth locals feel they’ve been neglected by their local council, “council spend money on re-vamping the area, trying to improve the area… but aren’t trying to help those who aren’t able to afford something as small as a one bedroom flat” ,said Beth Williams, a 32 primary school teacher, who has grown in Brixton. She added,” the consistent increase in housing is ridiculous. The prices are just way too high for a deprived area like Brixton”.
Brixton market stall owner, Mohamed Dahir explained, “some people are selling flats off at nearly double the price they bought it four years ago”. He added,” It’s almost nearly impossible for majority of the community to buy a house purely because of the price, it is just way too expensive for anyone that lives in Brixton”. This is a clear suggestion of inflation, as housing prices tend to rise with inflation, this effects people who are not selling their property but buying it.
The most extreme voices against gentrification say it is ‘equivalent to racial and social cleansing’, some locals of Brixton have agreed with this statement, as to a certain extent they sense “the black community has been neglected, deprived and underprivileged”, whereas the white British professionals have been statically presented to own majoring of the housing and business in Brixton. This is a result of Brixton losing its diversity, as it evidently sets the divide between who can and can’t buy their own house.
