Solihull-based Living Space Housing has acquired a six-acre development site in Cradley, on the outskirts of Malvern, Herefordshire, in conjunction with leading affordable housing provider Stonewater.
The site has planning approval for 51 brand-new two-, three- and four-bedroom family homes, together with a new playground. 25 of the homes will be for sale on the open market, 12 for shared ownership and 14 of the properties have been designated as affordable homes for rent. To be known as Pixiefields, which the site has always been known as, the mixed-tenure development is in a sought-after rural location benefitting from dramatic views over the Malvern Hills.
The shared ownership and rented homes will be developed by Living Space on behalf of Stonewater, through a development agreement worth £3.8m. While the 25 open market homes will be developed and marketed by Living Space.
The Pixiefields site was originally brought forward by Living Space’s sister company Terra, which specialises in acquiring and creating enhanced value for residential land.
Steve Davies, Managing Director of Living Space Housing said: “Pixiefields is Living Space’s first development with planning approval in place. This is a stunning site with inspiring views over the Malvern Hills. We are making preparations to start on site in September. The build programme is scheduled to take 18 months to complete, but we are working on having a live sales presence on site from April 2020.”
Living Space Housing is a new company specialising in providing an end-to-end service to Registered Providers (RPs), enabling them to deliver more homes with greater efficiency. Living Space takes care of land, planning, design, build and development. It can also assist RPs by delivering open market homes in order to help with a scheme’s viability. This enables Living Space’s clients to be able to focus on the funding and management of high-quality homes for their residents.
Steve Davies added: “This special site illustrates how we can work alongside Registered Providers in order to deliver their development objectives and we are very grateful to Stonewater for sharing in our vision for Pixiefields. Housing Associations are faced with taking on more aspects of a development than they have the resource to manage, which can leave them exposed to greater risk. In addition, even though the need for more housing is acute, getting planning consent continues to be a major issue. Living Space can unlock planning deadlock scenarios and ensure the consent granted is for a scheme that is viable to build.”
