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Mayor censures foreign investors for London empty homes

St George Wharf in London

London Mayor Sadiq Khan censures foreign millionaires for their “gold bricks” which are harming affordable housing in the British capital.

The Muslim mayor said Wednesday that it is possible to build 50,000 new homes a year, “but there is no point if they are all built by investors in the Middle East and Asia and they are used as second homes or sit empty.”

His comments followed Tuesday revelations by the Guardian in regard to the UK’s tallest residential skyscraper in London.

According to the investigation, 60 percent of The Tower is owned by foreigners, including a Russian billionaire, the former chairman of a defunct Nigerian bank and a Kyrgyz vodka tycoon. Arabs and Chinese are among the other owners.

Over 130 foreign buyers own the 50-story building at St George Wharf in Vauxhall, which enjoyed 30 percent low-cost comes before opening in 2013.

The pictures signal the start of the city's supercar season, when wealthy Arabs flee the scorching hot temperatures of the Middle East and cruise around the British capital in their ostentatious vehicles. (Daily Mail)

None of the 214 flats are considered affordable and range from £560,000 at the bottom to £51 million for the five-story penthouse.​

The newly-elected mayor, who followed top Tory Boris Johnson, referred to the revelations Wednesday while responding to questions by the London Assembly for the first time.

“The Guardian’s front page today is an example of the consequences of the last eight years of being obsessed by numbers rather than [building] the right sorts of homes,” Khan said.

He further suggested that the foreign investment should be directed towards affordable housing for Londoners.

Khan is interviewed outside City Hall in central London, on 19 May 2016. (AFP)

"The important thing is to build the right sort of homes ... that are affordable to Londoners to buy or rent. That is what I intend to do," Khan said. “Nobody is against people investing in London trying to get a good rate of return. The issue is using our homes as gold bricks for investment. People may want to invest in the wholesale side of building homes. That is in stark contrast in buying homes off-plan as an investment which are left empty.

The new mayor also revealed that under Johnson, only 13 percent of planning consents were issued for affordable homes in 2015.


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