Childers St, Deptford: 150 residents evicted to make way for "boutique luxury" student rooms
Aitch Group said that it needed to evict tenants to perform refurbishment works - now its student housing arm is marketing the building as student accommodation.
Tenants at the Vive Living apartment block in Childers Street, Deptford were shocked to receive section 21 "no fault" eviction notices late last year.
Property giant Aitch Group served notices to all its tenants less than three weeks before Christmas, and went on to vacate the building.
A spokesperson for Aitch Group told the BBC that the reason for the evictions was a "multi-million pound refurbishment" which "wouldn't require any planning permission."
Tenants were unconvinced, saying the building was refurbished in 2017 and there were no signs of the need for building work.
Nearly a year on, the reasons for the refurbishment have emerged. Your Tribe, the student accommodation arm of Aitch Group, is marketing the building as part of its rapidly growing estate in south east London.
YourTRIBE Deptford - The Luxe Collection
The building has been rebranded as YourTRIBE Deptford, "The Luxe Collection".
"Award-winning student living meets boutique luxury. Designed for those who expect more, this is a new calibre of living .. Every detail considered, every finish elevated. This isn’t halls. It’s home, designed for grown-up living."
The cheapest student room that YourTribe are offering at Childers Street offers twin beds, shared kitchen and bathroom at £862 per person per month, £1 under the affordable student housing cap for 2025/26.
There are regulations about the percentage of affordable student housing which should be offered in new developments, also stating that there should be "no difference in quality or access to services pointing to the accommodation being affordable".
Half of a shared room would seem to be a clear difference in quality.
"Classic", the cheapest room for a single student comes in at £1,062 per month, while "Ultimate ensuite" rooms, still with a shared kitchen, are advertised at £1,686 per month.
Students who have moved in have reported that the refurbishment is not complete and parts of the building are still "a building site". They believe that prices may rise further once work is complete.
Loss of 83 homes to Lewisham
Aitch Group got planning approval to develop 83 individual, private flats in 2014. They demolished the original building on the street except for the north east facade (seen above), and built a part 5 and part 6 storey building behind.
The development was completed in 2017, providing 25 x 1-bedroom flats, 48 x 2 beds and 10 x 3 beds, also cycle storage, communal roof space and other shared spaces.
These flats were also "designed for grown-up living". Before evicting the tenants, including single parents, Vive Living had marketed the complex with the assurance: "Renters deserve better .. Vive exists to provide that."
If offered "somewhere you can put down roots" and "live the London life you want." That promise rang hollow last December.
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PBSA is "like a pandemic"
Local residents have repeatedly raised concerns about the rapid increase in Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in the north Deptford area.
Malcolm Cadman from Pepys Community Forum described PBSA spreading "like a pandemic".
Residents argue that there is now over concentration of PBSAs in north Deptford, and that if the Childers Street change of use is permitted, it will result in over 2,000 student beds within a 1/4 mile radius of Deptford Park.
They say that this will bring pressure on local services such as GPs, goes far beyond meeting the needs of local universities and does nothing to meet Lewisham's intense housing need.
Aitch Group is one of the leading PBSA developers in the area.
C4 small HMO planning applications
In August 2024, less than four months before the evictions, the firm's planning agents submitted a change of use application, changing 13 of the units from C3 (independent homes) into C4 smaller size Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs).
C4 HMOs are defined as "shared houses occupied by between three and six unrelated individuals as their only or main residence, who share basic amenities such as a kitchen or bathroom."
The agent explained: "These flats were originally granted permission as C3 Dwellings, and used as such. In due course, these 13 flats were all used by more than two unrelated people, and changed to Use Class C4 (Small HMOs)."
They argued that this change of use had occurred before the borough brought in new HMO legislation, and they submitted Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreements (ASTs) as evidence, alongside the application.
On 14 October this year, a further application was made to convert another 30 flats to HMOs. It uses the same argument, "the existing use is as 30 units being used as Use Class C4 small HMO".
This time there is no planning statement, no explanation of what size the flats were and no ASTs.
There is no existing use as the flats have been vacated and extensive building works are going on.
Whether this manoeuvre is successful or not, it seems that Lewisham council has lost 83 private rented homes. The evicted tenants have been thrown back into a merciless marketplace of sky-high private rents and bidding wars.
Aitch Group and YourTribe did not respond to a request for comment.
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