The former Eastern Primary School Site is still unsold 18 months after it was vacated. The old school building has been marketed as as suitable for conversion into luxury flats with a short row of new build terraced houses fronting onto Rowanbank Gardens. Apart from a flashy sales brochure, there is apparently no progress to report about a sale. This is giving rise to concern among residents that the building will deteriorate and the site will become an eyesore. This would be a poor outcome because the buildings are listed and nationally important for their construction and architectural appearance.
The lack of a sale is partly a matter of the depressed state of the housing market and partly about the asking price. If the Council want to secure a sale, they will need to be more realistic and, like many property owners are having to do, they should consider cutting the price.
If they keep hanging out for the original cash amount they thought the sale would raise, they risk wasting council tax payers money on site security and interest payments on loans for other developments that would have otherwise been paid for by the capital receipt from the sale of the former Eastern Primary School buildings. If the site were worth £1 million, the cost of borrowing that amount might be as much as £50,000 per year.
I have contacted the Director and Convener of City Development to ask that they review the Council strategy on the sale of this site.
If they keep hanging out for the original cash amount they thought the sale would raise, they risk wasting council tax payers money on site security and interest payments on loans for other developments that would have otherwise been paid for by the capital receipt from the sale of the former Eastern Primary School buildings. If the site were worth £1 million, the cost of borrowing that amount might be as much as £50,000 per year.
I have contacted the Director and Convener of City Development to ask that they review the Council strategy on the sale of this site.
