Westminster Council sold land on expensive street for £14k

A council has been slammed for selling land on one of Britain’s most expensive streets to a millionaire banker for just £13,900.

Westminster City Council sold all 34 flats at Abercorn Place Estate in St John’s Wood, London, to a business run by Mukurrum Sattar.

The land sits on Hamilton Terrace, where there is currently a home on the market for £13.9million – 1,000 times more expensive. Last year one home was on sale for £27m.

Verity House which contains six flats is now owned outright by the family business, Kunte Kinte Limited.

Verity House which contains six flats is now owned outright by the family business, Kunte Kinte Limited

At the same time Kunte Kinte bought the freehold for neighbouring former council-owned Warner House for £85,000, which hosts 20 flats.

The Sattar family company also bought the freehold for Bradman House, which contains nine flats, for £631,000.

In total the three freeholds for the properties on the Abercorn Place Estate were £729,900.

They also now own leaseholds to 30 of the 35 flats on the estate and are currently in the process of buying a 31st, after buying from former council tenants who had used their right to buy option. Just three council tenants remain.

The estate is in one of the most expensive and fashionable parts of London, close to Lords Cricket Ground and Sir Paul McCartney has a home nearby.

The sale price was uncovered by Westminster Labour councillor Paul Dimoldenberg who said it opened the way for the historic council estate to be redeveloped and sold on.

Mr Dimoldenberg said: ‘The council has given away this valuable land and property for a ridiculously low price. St John’s Wood is one of the most expensive locations in London with sky-high property prices.

‘The new owner will be able to redevelop the whole site and make an absolute fortune at the Council’s expense.’

Westminster City Council sold all 34 flats at Abercorn Place Estate in St John’s Wood, London, to a business run by Mukurrum Sattar (pictured)

Fergus Coleman, head of affordable and private sector housing, at Westminster Council told Mr Dimoldenberg the freehold sales, which went through in 2010, ‘exceeded their valuation at the time’.

Westminster City Council insisted that under enfranchisement laws it was legally obliged to sell the freeholds.

In housing law tenants can acquire a building’s freehold as long as 50 per cent of them opt in. Tenants are barred from doing so if they own more than two flats.

A council spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that the freehold of the blocks were sold to leaseholders under the statutory right to enfranchise at the full and proper price in 2010. The price secured for the sale of this freehold exceeded an independent valuation of the property.

‘This was a statutory sale through enfranchisement, meaning that the council was legally obliged to sell the property.

‘Where the council had tenanted properties, these remained in the councils control and ownership, the tenants were not affected by the freehold sale as the council remained their immediate landlord’

In the same year Redbridge council, in much cheaper east London, sold the freehold to a block housing two flats for £10,000.

In 2013 it was revealed that one in three ex-council homes sold off under Margaret Thatcher’s famous right-to-buy policy are now in the hands of rich buy-to-let landlords.

The enfranchisement law which allows tenants to acquire freeholds

The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 gives the tenant of a leasehold house who fulfils certain rules of qualification the right to acquire the freehold and any intermediate leases.

In looking at the rules of qualification under the 1967 Act, there are three basic questions that need to be answered. First, does the building qualify. Secondly, does the lease qualify. Thirdly, does the tenant qualify. In order for the building to qualify, it must be a ‘house’.

This has developed a wide definition and can mean a shop with a flat above, or a building converted to flats.

However, one essential feature is that there must be no material over or under-hang with an adjoining building (if there is, then it is likely to be a flat).

The lease must comprise the whole of the house and it must be a long tenancy, i.e., a lease with an original term of more than 21 years.

However, if it is a business tenancy, then it will not qualify if it is for an original term of 35 years or less. The tenant must have owned the lease of the house for a period of at least two years before the date of the claim.

Prior to the 2002 Act, it was also necessary for the tenant to occupy the house as his only or main residence for a three year period. The residence test has now been abolished save in limited circumstances.

Source: Pemberton Greenish

The sale price was uncovered by Westminster Labour councillor Paul Dimoldenberg (left) who said it opened the way for the historic council estate (right) to be redeveloped and sold on

Just one in 10 council homes sold since the Tories re-launched right-to-buy in 2012 have been replaced with new ones – adding to the current crisis in social housing with more than a million households on waiting for a council house.

In 2015, it was revealed that desperate Westminster Council had spent £90m re-buying council homes it had sold off under right-to-buy for up to 22-times the price.

The Sattar family and their companies have spent an estimated £8m buying the leaseholds and the freehold to the Abercorn Estate, which was once owned by Westminster City Council.

A spokesman for Mr Sattar and Kunta Kinte Ltd said: ‘The flats were purchased from former council tenants, in most cases above market price.

‘Purchases were made when the flats were in a dilapidated state. But for my clients this estate would be in a sorry state.

‘You have the information that is in the public domain and both I and Mr Sattar see no need to add to that.’

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