Student houses are being turned back into family homes again after their owners sold them back to Brighton and Hove City Council.
The council has bought back four houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in Bevendean. Three are being converted into family homes and one into temporary housing.
The Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, and Councillor Gill Williams, the council’s cabinet member for housing, visited two six-bedroom student homes which currently being turned back into four-bedroom family homes.
Councillor Taylor, who represents Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, said that the properties were built as council houses in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Their size meant that they were suited to families, he said.
Homes sold to occupants under the “right to buy” were among 100 bought back by the council since April last year.
He said: “I think people generally are pretty keen and excited when the council buys back a six-bed HMO and turns it into a family house.
“This is one of the few areas that still could be affordable or at least a bit more affordable for a proper family house and there are the schools near by to support it.
“Whenever I mention it, residents are very supportive of this policy.”
Councillor Taylor said that some HMO landlords had approached the council to sell back their houses.
He said: “Student numbers are falling and we’ve also had a fair amount of building in the city in the last five to ten years of purpose-built student accommodation.
“I’m hoping this is a good time to be able to get back some of these properties and return them to family homes.”
Councillor Williams said that she felt sorry for the students who used to live in the houses as some of the rooms where quite small.
One of the houses had six bedrooms, with one made out of a cupboard and another from the garage.
She said: “It did make me a bit sad the way they chopped up these buildings. These were once family homes and they’re just squeezing in as many students as possible.
“The kitchen and communal areas were a bit sorry-looking. I teach students so I always want to look after them.”
Councillor Williams added that the council was short of four-bedroom family homes so these houses will would help families off the waiting list or out of temporary housing.
The council has been given £9.2 million from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund for an extra 46 homes, of which 28 would be temporary housing and 18 would be resettlement homes over the next four years.
