AT first it seems strange that we have a housing crisis in Colchester? So many houses for everyone?
I visited two of the new build sites at Tollgate last weekend and was shown around four houses in the development.
What was clear was how quickly the houses are being “snapped up” and this fact is all to see on the maps in the developers offices, with most now being sold “off plan” as existing properties are taken.
When asked who was buying the houses both companies said 70 per cent of the sales are coming from London with some of these from people moving out also from the Chelmsford area.
It seems evident that Colchester Council’s policy of extreme house building is not so much about building houses for the locals but more about selling houses.
Housing crisis? No, not for the 70 per cent or so of non-local people moving into Colchester and helping to maintain high prices for the builders.
For the local people of Colchester there is a crisis and perhaps their only solution is to move out into Suffolk and leave Colchester for the influx of homeowners coming from the south of the county.
The house price gradient coming out from London has always been there, but the explosive amount of building in Colchester is now well and truly taking its toll on the infrastructure and the younger locals who are trying to get on the housing ladder.
Tony Bramley
Marks Tey
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