First shared ownership home from Council goes to Hackney leaseholder
A HACKNEY family has moved into the first shared ownership home ever to be sold by Hackney Council.
Mary Mensah, a mother of three, moved into a newly-built four-bedroom townhouse at Brooklime House, Shepherds Lane, Homerton, on 8 December.
The NHS bookings supervisor had brought up her two sons and daughter, all now in higher education, for 24 years just over the road in Marian Court, after purchasing her two-bedroom Council flat there in 2004 through the Right to Buy scheme.
She said: “It’s a dream come true, to be in London and to have a big house – and with a garden! I always wanted to move after living in Marian Court for so many years, and I believe this property is a good investment.”
Cllr Philip Glanville, Cabinet Member for Housing, paid a visit to welcome her to her new home a few days after she had moved in, on 12 December.
Shared ownership homes have been sold in Hackney for decades, though usually through housing associations. The new homes at Brooklime House, and the adjoining Chervil House, are the first shared ownership properties to be built, managed, and sold by the Council.
Brooklime House and Chervil House were built on the site of former garages serving residents of Bridge House which, together with the adjacent Marian Court, is being redeveloped by the Council as part of a wider regeneration programme overseen by the Six Estates Steering Group, a group of residents from the estates involved (Bridge House, Marian Court, Tower Court, Dunnock Mews, Goldcrest Mews, and Finsbury Park Place).
George McGee, Chair of the Six Estates Steering Group, said: “I’m really pleased that this is the first leaseholder to do a shared ownership sale that’s been carried out as part of the Six Estates.”
The shared ownership properties at Brooklime House and Chervil House are the first of 500 shared ownership homes to be built in the coming years by the Council at sites all over the borough.
Shared ownership homes are allocated only according to Greater London Authority guidelines, which you can find out more about here www.hackney.gov.uk/h-homebuy
Cllr Philip Glanville, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “It was great to meet Mary in her new family home, and to see that leaseholders on regeneration estates can move into a brand new home ensuring that as well as returning tenants they can remain a key part of the community in which they live.”
