A LEADING local estate agent has urged BAA to be cautious when selling the homes it owns around Stansted Airport – or risk causing a property crash.
Following pressure from Stop Stansted Expansion, BAA chief executive Colin Matthews has reconfirmed the operator will sell ALL properties its owns around the Uttlesford hub.
The company had bought 279 as part of its aborted expansion plans. The second runway project was scrapped following the 2010 General Election, and since then campaigners have demanded that all BAA’s portfolio be put on the market.
Mr Matthews confirmed the sell-off in a letter to the Stansted Airport Consultative Committee (STACC) at its last meeting.
He said: “The approach the airport is adopting with regard to the disposal of these properties is to sell them in a sensitive manner over an extended period. This planned approach includes the entirety of the property portfolio acquired.
“Whilst these sales continue, the airport is doing all we can to maintain the stability of the local housing market, which, in common with the national situation, remains in a fragile state.”
That echoes advice to BAA from Mullucks Wells director Tim Trembath, also presented to STACC.
The boss of the estate agency – which has branches in Stortford, Dunmow, Saffron Walden and London’s Mayfair – urged restraint when selling the portfolio, saying there had been a 40-50 per cent reduction in house sales locally since 2007’s peak with a reduction in values of up to 15 per cent over the same period – and there was no reason to believe there would be an improvement in the medium term.
He said: “In considering the sale of the properties by STAL (Stansted Airport Ltd), I would advise a cautious approach as the properties are clustered together in small communities. The reaction therefore to a more aggressive approach would be (i) the undermining of the value of any similar properties in the vicinity and (ii) reducing dramatically the saleability of other homes not owned by STAL in these small communities.”
SSE wants the homes sold to bolster their defence against any lingering threat that the second runway scheme will be revived. Most BAA-owned houses around Stansted were acquired over the past eight years, but some have been owned by the company for more than 30 years after they were acquired in connection with earlier expansion attempts.
SSE chairman Peter Sanders said: “This is a landmark decision and very welcome. It will help remove the blight and uncertainty which has overshadowed this community for far too long.
“BAA must now turn this promise into action within a reasonable timescale. No one wants to flood the market, but we do now expect to see a steady flow of these BAA-owned houses being put on at sensible prices.”
He added: “It would be premature to view this as a sign that BAA has given up all hope of ever building a second runway at Stansted. But it is clearly a move in the right direction and we hope the Government will take note.”
A spokesman for BAA told the Observer that Mr Matthews’s letter simply confirmed the existing situation and there was nothing new to report other than the airport was maintaining its stance – from as far back as February 2011 – on property disposal.
