Westcountry homebuilder Cavanna Homes has officially opened the doors to its two show homes at Cavanna @ Elm Park, a new community of 245 open market and affordable homes near Exeter city centre. Cavanna Homes employees Craig Oldham, Senior Site Manager, Liana Smith, Sales Advisor and Sarah Bowden, Sales Manager
Construction work is about to start on a new development in Ely which will deliver more than 250 new homes and a new cricket pitch and pavilion in the city. Linden Homes, part of the Vistry Group, is preparing to build 258 properties at its new Willow Woods development, off
Research from specialist property lending experts, Octane Capital, has revealed which areas of the British rental market are driving growth in rental stock availability, as well as the areas where tenants have seen availability decline. Despite the government’s attempts to deter buy-to-let investment, previous research by Octane Capital found that
18 suppliers have won spots on a Social Housing Emerging Disruptors (SHED) framework launched by Procurement for Housing so social landlords can compliantly procure cutting edge, innovative services and technologies to support with retrofit, development and fire safety targets. The framework is worth up to £100m over three years. Challenges
Cruden Building (West), part of the Cruden Group, has been appointed by Calvay Housing Association, to deliver a £7.9m affordable housing contract at Garvel Crescent and Blyth Road in the Barlanark area of Glasgow. The brownfield sites will be developed to include 37 units of affordable housing at Garvel Crescent
The latest research from Warwick Estates, has created a guide to buying a leasehold home in 2022, explaining exactly what a leasehold is while analysing the pros and cons of leasehold ownership. What is a leasehold? A leasehold contract means the purchaser owns everything that sits within the four walls
Kier has just been awarded by Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan and AIMCo the contract for the construction of 142 new affordable homes for Peabody in two new buildings called Macfarlane Place at Television Centre, London, W12. Construction of Macfarlane Place will commence in March 2022, with delivery expected in early 2024.
Workman, the UK’s largest independent commercial property management and building consultancy firm, has been appointed by General Projects as property manager for Heal’s Building, Tottenham Court Road, London. General Projects recently acquired the 187,000 sq ft Grade II listed, a mixed-use asset in a joint venture with global investment firm
Work has begun to transform a vacant brownfield site into a landmark, 30 home timber frame housing development – providing much needed affordable properties in Leeds. The scheme will deliver a total of 14 one bedroomed apartments, ten two bedroomed houses and six three bedroomed homes – two of which
All homes are now sold at Bellway’s Shepherds Walk development in the Oxfordshire village of North Leigh, as building work draws to a close. The final homes are being constructed at the site, with work due for completion early this year. Bellway is delivering 116 new homes at Shepherds Walk,
Westcountry homebuilder Cavanna Homes has officially opened the doors to its two show homes at Cavanna @ Elm Park, a new community of 245 open market and affordable homes near Exeter city centre. Cavanna Homes employees Craig Oldham, Senior Site Manager, Liana Smith, Sales Advisor and Sarah Bowden, Sales Manager marked the occasion with a ribbon-cutting at the newly launched Sales Arena. “It’s fantastic to have officially opened the new show homes at Cavanna @ Elm Park and invite prospective buyers to book an appointment to visit us. We’ve already secured ten reservations off-plan, which is brilliant and shows a real appetite for new homes in Exeter,” said Liana Smith. The two show homes; a four-bedroom Langcombe townhouse and three-bedroom detached Lakehead have master bedrooms with en-suites, modern open plan kitchen/ dining areas and spacious living rooms each showcasing the firm’s highest specification of fixtures and fittings. Cavanna @ Elm Park offers a selection of two, three and four-bedroom homes surrounded by large open green space for residents to enjoy. Homeowners can also take advantage of the 40 hectares of Riverside Valley Park, alongside the River Exe for walking, running or cycling. The new development in Exeter has been designed to promote a sense of community, improve biodiversity and encourage green travel, thanks to new cycle routes connecting to the existing network. A bus stop will also be located on the development to ensure easy access to the city centre is available to the new residents. A bespoke sensory garden is also being designed for the development to include separate seating pods, each with its own special feature such as a sculpture, scented plants, and fruit trees to create a relaxing and tranquil environment that entices all the senses. Bird and bat boxes will also be added to encourage wildlife alongside the planting of new trees. The local area has excellent primary and secondary schools, and a college, plus a fitness centre, supermarkets, retail parks and restaurants. As part of the firm’s community contributions, it will provide over £3 million in Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to the local council and community to support roads, education, recreation and public transport.
Construction work is about to start on a new development in Ely which will deliver more than 250 new homes and a new cricket pitch and pavilion in the city. Linden Homes, part of the Vistry Group, is preparing to build 258 properties at its new Willow Woods development, off Lynn Road. The site forms part of the wider Orchards Green scheme, which is set to bring 1,200 new homes and a range of community facilities to North Ely over the coming years. Linden Homes will deliver 212 private homes and 46 affordable properties available for local people through rent or shared ownership at Willow Woods. The development will comprise a mix of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom houses and apartments. As part of the planning agreement for the development, Linden Homes will also be providing a new ECB-approved cricket pitch and pavilion. Laura Thomas, sales manager at Willow Woods, said: “We are looking forward to the first bricks being laid at our new Willow Woods development as work gets underway on bringing these much-needed new homes to the north of the city. “Our range of one to five-bedroom houses and apartments, which have been thoughtfully designed to reflect the historic nature of Ely, means there is something for housebuyers at all stages of the property ladder. “As the development forms part of the new Orchards Green scheme, residents at Willow Woods will have access to a wealth of new facilities and will benefit from a country park, trim trail facilities and an off-site cycleway.” Willow Woods is named after the timber used to make cricket bats, chosen to link with the cricket pitch and pavilion Linden Homes is also providing at the site. With work set to start imminently, the developer intends to release the first homes for sale at Willow Woods this spring. Linden Homes is currently building new homes near Ely at its Laithwaite Gardens development in Sutton. For more information, visit www.lindenhomes.co.uk/eastmidlands
Research from specialist property lending experts, Octane Capital, has revealed which areas of the British rental market are driving growth in rental stock availability, as well as the areas where tenants have seen availability decline. Despite the government’s attempts to deter buy-to-let investment, previous research by Octane Capital found that the total value of the sector has increased by £239bn since 2017, with the nation’s landlords benefitting from a strong level of capital appreciation. Octane Capital’s latest research also shows that across Britain, the level of private rental homes has actually increased by 18,610 in the last five years, suggesting an exodus of landlords has yet to materialise in the wake of legislative changes to tax relief, stamp duty and tenant fees. London is leading the private rental market charge and is not only home to the largest rental sector with over one million PRS homes, but it’s seen a 6.4% increase in stock levels in the last five years – that’s 63,000 more rental homes to meet tenant demand. In the West Midlands, PRS stock levels have climbed by 4.4%, closely followed by the East Midlands with a 3.9% jump. The South West (3.2%), Wales (2.2%) and East of England (2.1%) have also seen an increase in the number of private rental properties within the sector. But not all regions have benefited from an uplift in rental stock levels. The North West has been hit hardest by a reduction in private rental availability, currently home to 556,005 PRS homes, 34,000 less than just five years ago – a drop of -5.8%. In the South East, the level of privately rented homes has fallen by -5.2% during the same timeframe, meaning there are 36,500 fewer properties for tenants to fight it out over. Yorkshire and the Humber has also seen a notable drop at -4.6%, with Scotland (-2.9%) and the North East (-1.6%) also seeing a decline. CEO of Octane Capital, Jonathan Samuels, commented: “Much has been made about the government’s intentions to deter landlords via a string of legislative changes designed to reduce buy-to-let profitability, but as it stands, we’re yet to see any top line decline in private rental stock levels as a result of these changes. That said, some areas of the British rental market have faired far better than others and while stock levels have increased across the majority, there have also been some notable declines. The private rental market remains vital to so many across Britain and it’s crucial that the government recognises this and does its best to nurture the sector in order to encourage landlords, not deter them.” Private rental stock data sourced from Gov.uk, Gov.wales, Gov.scot and ni.gov.uk – 2015 to 2020 (latest available data).
18 suppliers have won spots on a Social Housing Emerging Disruptors (SHED) framework launched by Procurement for Housing so social landlords can compliantly procure cutting edge, innovative services and technologies to support with retrofit, development and fire safety targets. The framework is worth up to £100m over three years. Challenges posed by Covid, materials and labour shortages, plus surging demand for low carbon, building safety and development works have created an unparalleled environment for housing providers. This is forcing them to search for fresh, non-traditional solutions to deliver competing strategic objectives. Public sector procurement has traditionally been seen as a barrier to innovation, introducing processes and bureaucracy that make it harder to buy emerging solutions from entrepreneurial SMEs and micro-organisations. Fledgling suppliers are unable to scale their solutions and invest in further innovation because buying teams can’t procure services compliantly under existing rules. Procurement for Housing has addressed these issues by creating a framework that is flexible, future-proof and light touch in terms of paperwork and procedure. A dedicated SHED portal will enable housing providers to conduct a simple desk-based supplier selection process. The portal will identify the supplier that can best meet their needs and PfH’s procurement team will provide pricing information and support the contracting process. Innovators appointed to the SHED framework include Bimdl, a blockchain-backed building information modelling (BIM) solution; Power Circle Projects, which provides democratised, decentralised low carbon smart energy solutions; Chameleon Digitization an organisation using machine learning to spot dangerous gas canisters being taken into high rise buildings; Q-Bot, a robotic underfloor insulation installer and Green Action Trust which supports social landlords to improve the sustainability of their local environment. PfH worked with the Proptech Innovation Network to find suppliers at the forefront of housing technology, data and software solutions and service design to join the framework. A second generation SHED2 framework is due to launch in the Autumn of 2022. It will bring to market those innovations developed since the first framework launched. Neil Butters, head of procurement at PfH said:“Over the past 12 months, our members have been telling us about the perfect storm of challenges they’re facing with global supply chain disruption, a widespread skills crisis and huge pressure to meet fire safety, net zero and house building targets. There is urgent need for innovation that can help them address these problems, but public procurement regulations just haven’t caught up. Housing providers can’t compliantly buy the innovative services they need.” “The government is currently changing public procurement rules, but that reform might not come into force until 2023. We wanted to be brave and unpick the challenges around procuring innovation which is still a fairly intangible, transient category of goods and services. It was important we did that here and now for the sector, rather than sitting on our hands – no one else is really tackling it.” “Many of the suppliers we’ve appointed to the framework are small or micro businesses. We wanted to unlock their services for the social housing sector – these are pioneering, future-thinking organisations, many with a focus on sustainability or building safety. The SHED is about PfH supporting social landlords to identify and adopt innovation that will improve the lives of tenants.” For further information about the SHED framework visit https://procurementforhousing.co.uk/shed/
Cruden Building (West), part of the Cruden Group, has been appointed by Calvay Housing Association, to deliver a £7.9m affordable housing contract at Garvel Crescent and Blyth Road in the Barlanark area of Glasgow. The brownfield sites will be developed to include 37 units of affordable housing at Garvel Crescent with a further 6 units being constructed on the Blyth Road site. The new energy-efficient homes will comprise a mix of two, three and four-bedroom houses and cottage flats. The development will also have dedicated landscaped parking courts. The Glasgow based design team for this project included the award-winning practice, MAST Architects, and Clyde Design Partnership. Work is due to start on site in March 2022 and is expected to be completed by Spring 2023. Allan Callaghan, Managing Director of Cruden Building said: “We are excited to start work on this important development and to provide much needed affordable homes that deliver as much on quality, as they do on energy efficiency. “At Cruden, we give back to the communities we build in, and on this project, we will provide a range of community benefits, including valuable apprenticeship opportunities and an additional £5k in funding for Calvay Housing Association to support even more community housing initiatives in the Glasgow area.”
The latest research from Warwick Estates, has created a guide to buying a leasehold home in 2022, explaining exactly what a leasehold is while analysing the pros and cons of leasehold ownership. What is a leasehold? A leasehold contract means the purchaser owns everything that sits within the four walls of the home, but does not own the land surrounding the home, the ground below it nor the sky above it. When buying a flat, for example, it’s almost guaranteed that the purchase will be a leasehold agreement because a building owner or landlord continues to own the other flats in the block. Furthermore, a leasehold, unlike a freehold, is not permanent, there is a limited timeline of ownership, otherwise known as the term of the lease. This lease is often hundreds of years long, but once it expires, ownership of the lease transfers back to the freeholder. For context, in 2021, leasehold purchases accounted for just 18.9% of all property transactions in England & Wales, with freeholds making up the remaining 81.1%. What are the advantages of a leasehold? With absolute ownership out of the question, why would anyone want a buy leasehold instead of a freehold? First, a leasehold property is often cheaper than a freehold because of the lack of outright ownership it provides. and the leaseholder is often not responsible for paying for the general upkeep of communal areas in the buildings such as corridors and stairways. But leaseholds are rarely purchased for their advantages over freehold, more because leaseholds are essential when buying a flat in a tall building of flats and have, as such, become increasingly popular as we see urban areas developing vertically rather than horizontally. What are the disadvantages of buying a leasehold property? The truth is that leaseholds are often a necessity rather than a choice and there are significant downsides of leasehold ownership. First, a lease is only held for a limited amount of time – ownership will, one day, expire. Second, a leaseholder is often expected to pay significant fees to the freeholder/landlord in order to contribute to the upkeep of communal space, for example, and for essential repairs to the building. A leasehold also tends to limit the amount of changes the owner can make to their home and permission is often required from the freeholder. If not, a leasehold can be stripped. This lack of freedom can also extend to things like pet ownership, or running a business from home, or sub-letting to third-party. Finally, when a leasehold starts running out, it can be very difficult to find a buyer for the property so the opportunity to benefit from capital gain is small. And, since the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2007, the external cladding scandal has added a further level of complexity for flat owners to break free of their leasehold contracts. What happens at the end of a leasehold property? It is often the case that the end of a leasehold is not something any owner needs to worry about. Often, a leasehold will be for 999 years in order to make it a more attractive agreement for buyers. Many vendors will suggest that a 999-year leasehold is ‘as good as a freehold’, but such sentiment tends to ignore all of the potential downsides listed above. If, however, the lease does expire, the ownership of the property reverts back to the freeholder and it is theirs to do what they want with. But, one can ask for an extension to the leasehold. In fact, once a person has owned a leasehold home for two years, they will often have the right to extend the lease by 90 years.
Kier has just been awarded by Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan and AIMCo the contract for the construction of 142 new affordable homes for Peabody in two new buildings called Macfarlane Place at Television Centre, London, W12. Construction of Macfarlane Place will commence in March 2022, with delivery expected in early 2024. The buildings form part of the wider Television Centre development which will eventually have c 950 homes in total. Stanhope is the development manager for Television Centre and Cantillon was the demolition contractor for the multi-storey car park. Designed by Maccreanor Lavington Architects, the new buildings will replace the now demolished former BBC multi-storey car park on Wood Lane, W12, opposite Westfield. The new buildings will provide 71 London Affordable Rent, 34 London Living Rent and 37 homes for Shared Ownership. The buildings will provide 68 x 1 bed, 67 x 2 bed and 7 x 3 bed apartments, with new public realm and retail space retained by the JV fronting Wood Lane. Peabody will be responsible for managing the homes when completed. The JV is working closely with Transport for London, who own the adjacent arches below the elevated Hammersmith & City line, to help improve the wider area for the local community. “Construction of 142 affordable homes, and the ongoing construction of a new office building at 1 Wood Crescent, Television Centre, shows the healthy state of the property market in White City. We are looking forward to working with Kier and delivering much needed affordable homes for residents in Hammersmith & Fulham alongside Peabody who share our confidence and long-term commitment for the area,” commented Jonathan Trout, Property & Commercial Director at Stanhope. Stanhope, Mitsui and AIMCo are the developers of the 14 acre site at Television Centre, including 500,000 sq ft of offices, 950 new homes, Soho House, three state of the art BBC studios, the HQs of BBC Worldwide and Publicis Media. 432 homes have been completed in phase 1, the vast majority of which are now sold. Phase 2 comprises 500 homes, including 142 affordable.
Workman, the UK’s largest independent commercial property management and building consultancy firm, has been appointed by General Projects as property manager for Heal’s Building, Tottenham Court Road, London. General Projects recently acquired the 187,000 sq ft Grade II listed, a mixed-use asset in a joint venture with global investment firm KKR from Columbia Threadneedle Investments. Home to the flagship store of the legendary design furniture retailer for 200 years, the site consists of nine interconnected buildings housing a mixture of retail, office and residential tenants. General Projects plan to reimagine the site into a hub for creative, media and technology businesses while sensitively maintaining the Heal’s legacy. Site Close to Tottenham Court Road Underground The building sits on the eastern site of Tottenham Court Road opposite Goodge Street Underground station and is a 5-minute walk from the new Tottenham Court Road Underground and Elizabeth Line station that will give direct access to Heathrow to the West and Canary Wharf to the East. David Soar, Partner at Workman, commented: “Being appointed by General Projects on another exciting project to reinvent such an iconic building, is testament to the skills of our team to support General Project’s vision for delivering workplaces of the future while working with the current occupiers.”
Work has begun to transform a vacant brownfield site into a landmark, 30 home timber frame housing development – providing much needed affordable properties in Leeds. The scheme will deliver a total of 14 one bedroomed apartments, ten two bedroomed houses and six three bedroomed homes – two of which will be located on a satellite site, replacing two old properties that were previously demolished. The homes to be built at Leeds Meynell, in Holbeck, will be 100% affordable and constructed in less than nine months, with the first residents expected to move in by early summer 2022. They will be built using an innovative timber frame construction process, that involves constructing elements of the properties offsite – in a factory-controlled setting – before transporting them to site for assembly. The method uses the same materials, standards and codes as conventionally built homes but the controlled plant conditions ensure the process is completed more quickly than a traditional build. They will be constructed using a ‘Fabric first’ approach – which involves maximising performance of the materials and components that make up the very fabric of a building. This will help to achieve a key objective of the project, which is to ensure energy efficiency, lower fuel bills and tackle the fuel poverty problems that some Leeds City Council tenants face. The eco-friendly scheme will also support the council’s commitment to reduce the city’s direct carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030 and make Leeds a greener, fairer and healthier city. The project is being delivered through Leeds City Council’s Housing Growth Programme (CHGP), which aims to build around 1500 new, high-quality social housing units over the next five years. Once completed, the new homes will be managed by the council and will become part of its affordable housing stock, Mick Holling, Managing Director with United Living New Homes North, said: “Leeds is a thriving and growing city which needs new, good quality housing to meet demand. We look forward to playing a central role in regenerating this area of Leeds and creating much-needed new homes for local people. “The timber frame sector is transforming the way new homes are built. It offers a comprehensive, energy-efficient and low carbon solution for social housing that is high-quality, affordable and easily accessible and adaptable”. Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council’s Executive Member for Infrastructure and Climate, said: “One of Leeds’ biggest priorities is to provide enough housing to meet the needs of a growing population. This is why we have developed our programme to build 1,500 new affordable homes over the next 5 years; all of which need to be high quality and accessible. Not only will this scheme positively contribute towards this ambition, it will also help us achieve our climate targets by providing people with energy efficient, low carbon homes. “I look forward to following the progress of this scheme and welcoming our first residents later this year.” As the principal contractor for the development, United Living will partner with Leeds City Council and William Saunders Architects.
All homes are now sold at Bellway’s Shepherds Walk development in the Oxfordshire village of North Leigh, as building work draws to a close. The final homes are being constructed at the site, with work due for completion early this year. Bellway is delivering 116 new homes at Shepherds Walk, off New Yatt Road, with half of these (58 homes) allocated as affordable housing. “Shepherds Walk has been an incredibly successful development, and we have now sold all private homes before construction work has been completed,” said Elaine Brown, Head of Sales for Bellway South Midlands. “This allows us to focus on completing the remaining work at the site and delivering a legacy of more than 100 much-needed new homes for residents of North Leigh, including a selection of affordable homes that will greatly benefit the local community. All affordable homes at Shepherds Walk have already been completed and handed over, while the final few private homeowners will be moving into their new property at the development very soon.” The house development is located in a village setting on the edge of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds and is a mix of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes that have appealed to a wide range of buyers. “Selling all private homes at Shepherds Walk reflects the high demand for new homes in the area and we are now looking forward to welcoming the final homeowners to the development in the coming weeks and months. The last steps for Bellway will be to wrap up the building work on the final homes at Shepherds Walk, which we hope will be completed in early 2022, as well as finishing the remaining roads before moving all operational vehicles off the site,” concluded Elaine. Bellway Homes is a FTSE 250 Index listed residential housebuilder based in Newcastle upon Tyne, employing almost 3,000 staff across 22 Divisions across England, Scotland and Wales.