Southwark will sell 48 Elmwood Road, a vacant three-storey house split into two flats, at auction. It says the house is uneconomic to repair; the sale should top £500,000.

Southwark Council is selling an empty council house on Elmwood Road in Herne Hill, in the council’s Dulwich Village ward.

The property is 48 (A and B) Elmwood Road, SE24 9NR. The council’s decision report describes it as a vacant Edwardian, three-storey, end-of-terrace house, arranged as two self-contained flats.

The Strategic Director of Resources approved the sale on 22 October. The decision record was published on 28 October and is subject to call-in by councillors. None had been lodged when it was published.

Why the council is selling

The house sits in the council’s Housing Revenue Account, the ring-fenced budget for its own tenanted homes. The report says it has been declared a void “not fit for purpose and uneconomic to be brought back into use as an affordable home”.

It gives these reasons:

  • the house has structural issues and extensive disrepair
  • substantial investment would be needed to make it acceptable and safe
  • a review found the cost of bringing it back into use would be “disproportionate” when set against future rent
  • keeping it empty costs money for security, insurance, maintenance and compliance, with no rent coming in

The report does not say how long the house has been empty, or what the repairs would cost.

What it could sell for

No guide price has been published. The report says auctioneers gave an informal estimate, assuming it stays residential, but the figure is not in the public papers.

Two details put it in a range:

  • the council’s lawyers expect the sale to exceed £500,000, which is why it is a key decision
  • it is expected to stay below £3 million, the limit up to which the council’s property officers can sell without going to the Executive

The house could go to auction or be sold privately, “by private treaty”. A reserve price is set just before the auction. If there is no bid above it, the council can try a later auction or sell through an estate agent, as long as the price meets the reserve.

Where the money goes

The net receipt stays in the Housing Revenue Account. The report says it will go to the council’s Housing Investment Programme, which includes building new council homes for rent and work on existing stock.

The sale follows Southwark’s void disposal policy, agreed by the then Cabinet in December 2020 and attached to the report. That policy says council homes should only be sold where it helps the wider building programme. It lets the council consider a sale where a void home:

  • is valued at over £500,000, as long as at least one other reason also applies
  • is listed
  • is uneconomic to repair
  • has an unworkable layout, such as a bathroom off a bedroom

The same 2020 report recorded 18 void sales in the three years to 2019/20, at an average of £500,505 each.

This is the second sale of its kind in our area this autumn. In September the council approved the sale of two empty flats at 179 Barry Road in East Dulwich, along with three in Camberwell: Southwark to auction 5 empty homes, two on Barry Road.

What it means for you

  • If you live on Elmwood Road, the house stays empty until it sells, and the buyer is likely to be private. The report sets no condition on who can buy it or how it is used afterwards. Any conversion back to a single house, or other building work, would need its own planning permission where the rules require it.
  • If you are on Southwark’s housing register, this sale does not change your banding. The council says the money will help pay for new council homes.
  • If you want to question the decision, contact your Dulwich Village ward councillors. Only councillors can call in a delegated decision, and the window is short.

We will add the auction date and guide price when the property is listed.

Sources