David Knight: Aberdeen’s HMO problem is draining the life from our communities |
None of us are very keen on “change” when we first hear that it’s heading our way – it never ends well, or so we think.
Such as a neighbour getting up to something with a surprise new project.
To prove my point, I was watching an episode of Everwood on Netflix the other day – a homely tale of life in a pleasant small town in Colorado.
A man decided to start building a lighthouse in his back garden – as you do – and an apoplectic neighbour fell off a wall trying to get a closer look.
Now let’s look at the fuss proposals for a former guesthouse in Aberdeen have caused.
Over-transforming it into an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) which tied neighbours in MKA (Multiple Knots of Anxiety).
It’s easy to see why.
HMOs carry certain connotations of bad behaviour or excessive disruption by their tenants, and mental suffering for neighbours.
A sweeping generalisation, you might think.
Not in every case, of course, but enough to raise concerns.
Especially when the word “multiple” doesn’t just apply to the number of tenants, but a large concentration of HMO properties clustered together in one area – as has happened in Aberdeen hotspots – to the detriment of local communities.
They change the traditional character of a place and create an unwelcome precedent.
Salisbury Terrace in Aberdeen is a nice enough street with some pleasing old granite residential properties.
But plans to move nine HMO tenants into the old guesthouse here were regarded as a step too far by neighbours, who feared potential negative impact – and rejected with a vote by councillors after robust debate with objectors.
Not all residents are so lucky
One councillor suggested an HMO was not much different from the previous guesthouse in character, but to me that seemed like comparing a garden worm with a rattlesnake.
It occurred to me that the biggest difference might be a lack of direct daily management and supervision of tenants in an HMO.
But the principles behind the issue haven’t gone away, and it won’t be the last.
Not all residents are so lucky.
A man who claimed he was reduced to feeling “like a zoo animal” living next door to a noisy student HMO in Kittybrewster, Aberdeen, lost his attempt to revoke its licence last year.
I’ve noticed an A4 piece of paper fluttering in the breeze after being pinned to a house down the lane from where I live; I know exactly what it is.
It’s a public declaration by an HMO landlord about renewing his council licence.
I’d seen a report somewhere that Orchard Street, Old Aberdeen, which is just around the corner and a magnet for university students, has a 90% HMO rate.
This seemed unbelievable after the city council set a target of 12% within the past couple of years to prevent such saturation.
So I checked the city council’s HMO register for just this one street – I stopped counting after reaching 20.
It’s lucrative revenue for the council: my understanding is that renewing a licence for a mid-range HMO costs £1,500.
That makes £30,000 from those I actually counted in one street, so across the city this must rake in profits of bus-gate fine proportions.
I respect those who turn to HMO conversions to keep their heads above water financially in hard times.
But there are good profits for pure speculators, too: reported yields of 11% on HMO investments are mouthwatering.
Despite a worsening property market in Aberdeen caused by the oil and gas crisis, a broker selling HMO mortgages dangled “30,000 students” prominently on its website to entice investors to Aberdeen.
Not everything is rosy in the garden for landlords
Although based in the heart of London’s legal district surrounded by countless law chambers, the firm appears to have intimate knowledge about making money in Aberdeen’s HMO market.
Not everything is rosy in the garden for landlords, however: another investment firm in this sector warned of “landlord fatigue”.
I assumed this was caused by clearing up students’ bottles of booze or teaching them to put rubbish in the right bins – or just any bin for that matter.
But no – landlords were apparently being worn down by relentlessly rising costs, regulation and improvement works to meet required statutory HMO standards.
They are not the only ones suffering from fatigue – areas flooded by HMOs feel the same.
Salisbury Terrace might have escaped a close encounter with a similar fate.
The problem with the council’s 12% rule is that it only applies to new applications – existing licenses and sell-ons are exempt even in swamped red-flag areas like Old Aberdeen.
What they should have done was to start culling existing licences in these danger zones whenever possible.
Some corners of Old Aberdeen and elsewhere had community life and soul sucked out – and their shells taken over by zombie dwellings.