One Kensington Gardens: Buy-to-Leave Gentrification in the Royal Borough

Abstract

One Kensington Gardens is a large nine-storey luxury apartment building on High Street Kensington. Rarely are there any lights on. The building exemplifies the many buy-to-leave homes in Kensington and Chelsea, the richest local authority in the UK. Looking at these homes from the perspective of residents and councillors who live and work in the borough, I explore how buy-to-leave housing hollows out community, increases the cost of living, sanitises public space, and results in exclusionary and physical displacement. I also identify what role the local authority has in the process of financialising housing in the borough, including how councillors work with developers to make decisions that do not meet the needs of the residents they have been elected to serve. By concentrating on the voice of residents, I show how buy-to-leave homes reinforces the super-gentrification of the borough and becomes another form of gentrification that contributes to displacement.