Shabby former Dudley council homes put up for sale as 'investment opportunities'

Dudley Council housing chiefs decided to dispose of 84 empty homes in December 2023 but more than a third of them are currently for sale while others have already been snapped up.

The council’s policy is to sell homes in batches to private sector developers if the repair bill for a property is greater than £10,000.

Developers are expected to bring the homes back up to standard before selling them on or renting them out.

Pictures accompanying individual adverts for the 31 homes that are on the market or have recently been bought show the houses in a poor state of repair, raising fears unscrupulous landlords will rent out the homes without bringing them up to standard.

Councillor Ian Bevan, cabinet member for housing and communities, said: “We accept a small number of homes look to have been placed on the market with little renovation.

“In any large mixed batch of properties there will obviously be ones that to an investor do not provide a payback warranting further works.

“Having identified early on this was happening, we have taken action to try and limit this practice.

“In the last two sale lots that have completed, we have had clauses inserted into the contract to limit the percentage of properties that can be sold on within 12 months.”

Dudley Council said it would not reveal the percentage Councillor Bevan referred to for commercial reasons.

An investigation by the Local Democracy Reporting Service found homes around the borough were for sale at auction with starting bids, or had recently been sold subject to contract, with prices ranging from £85,000 up to £160,000.

The average price per property was £132,838 which puts these homes in the bargain bracket, according to the Office for National Statistics the average selling price for a home in Dudley borough is £241,000.

Dudley’s Lib Dem group leader, Councillor Ryan Priest said: “Local authorities have a responsibility to crack down on rogue landlords.

“When I look at some of the issues in my ward one of the big reasons landlords get away with practically what they want is that Dudley doesn’t do enough to enforce.

“A lot of local authorities don’t use their powers effectively, councils have the power to crack down on dodgy landlords but often they are getting away with it.”

At a meeting of the council’s Housing and Safer Communities Select Committee on August 1, Dudley’s director of housing and communities, Kathryn Jones, faced questions on why some homes are resold by developers immediately without any renovation.

Ms Jones told councillors a small number of properties were sold on to raise funds for the renovation of the remainder of the batch bought by an investor and those sales were monitored by Dudley’s legal team.

Speaking in late August, Councillor Bevan said: “We have recently disposed of 132 homes and have a further 86 homes, two sheltered housing schemes and 15 void garage plots on the market.

“The homes are sold in groups via the framework to commercial investors to avoid them being bought and sold by private landlords who could choose to re-let them in a poor condition.”