A new company is being launched to provide a development-led residential planning, design and construction services solution to Registered Providers (RPs).
Living Space Housing, based at The Courtyard on Warwick Road in Solihull, is launching to the market with deals secured for its first four sites, representing a combined construction value of £22million.
The organisation’s first batch of affordable homes are in Kidderminster and Cradley, which is on the outskirts of Malvern. The client for both of these projects is national social housing provider Stonewater. Two further sites located in Telford, Shropshire are also in solicitors’ hands. These four schemes will start on site before the end of 2019, delivering a combined total of 166 homes to the market.
Steve Davies (pictured) – who has worked in the sector for over four decades – has been recruited to head up the new business as Managing Director. He said: “Living Space Housing is being launched to provide an end-to-end service to Registered Providers, enabling them to deliver more homes with greater efficiency. We will take care of land, planning, design, build and development. If there is a discrepancy in the price a RP can pay for a site – compared to its market land value – we can assist by creating a development mix that includes homes for private sale. Meanwhile, our clients can focus on the funding and management of high-quality homes for their residents.”
Living Space is the sister company to award-winning luxury housebuilder Hayfield. Established in 2016, Hayfield has completed on over 100 homes to date, equating to a revenue figure of £33million. Living Space is the brainchild of Hayfield’s Managing Director Mark Booth and it is being funded by the founders of the housebuilding business.
For sites requiring a proportion of homes designated for sale on the open market, all aspects of the marketing, selling, customer journey and aftersales care can be undertaken by Living Space.
Mr Davies continued: “It is surprising how few competitors we have in the current marketplace. To achieve their targets, 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.”
Steve Davies has joined Living Space from Seddon Construction, where he was a Development Director.
