A London housing association has applied to build the first in a series of developments for affordable rent without subsidy using offsite construction.
Richmond Housing Partnership (RHP) will be one of the first housing associations to construct homes made in a £55m factory in Leeds established by institutional investor Legal & General (L&G).
RHP is about to build a prototype of the flat, called Launchpad, at its office in Teddington, which will be onsite around Christmas or early in the new year. RHP has also put in a pre-application for planning for a site of 30 flats for affordable rent in Richmond.
RHP is aiming for build costs of £55,000 to £65,000 for the 26 sq m, one-bedroom flats compared to around £80,000 to £90,000 for a similar sized property built using traditional methods.
Robin Oliver, head of development at RHP, said the association would also save money in reduced interest payments on its financing because it would be able to get the flats built and rented faster than traditionally built units.
RHP said the savings and small property sizes mean it will be possible to build homes for affordable rent without grant on sites the association owns or has acquired at a discount.
On the first scheme of 30 homes the association plans to rent them for about £190 a week, which is about 80% of the market rent in the scheme’s high-value location. Affordable rents could go down to £138 in cheaper areas, RHP said.
Mr Oliver said: “If we get the right site, we can do affordable rent without grant and we could reduce that if we had some grant coming into it. There will be cases where we will doing it in higher-value areas and we could take a mixed approach with some at 100 per cent [of market rent] and some for people nominated by a council at an affordable rent level. Generally it will be at affordable rent and sometimes below that – some councils have been talking to us about getting rents below that – but the schemes we are actively progressing at the moment are at affordable rent levels.”
The flats are aimed at people who would be unlikely to qualify for social housing but earn too little to buy a home through shared ownership. In Richmond that would cover an income range of about £15,000 and £45,000. Mr Oliver said: “We looked at how we could solve this problem and we thought if we created a really well designed, well-built home – albeit much smaller – it would reduce your rent. It would give people the independence they are looking for and they would get good quality services from us and not be at the whim of private landlords asking them to move every six months. “
RHP said the product could be particularly suitable for the Mayor of London’s London Living Rent, which sets rents in line with a third of an area’s mean household income. The architects for the 30-home scheme are Wimshurst Pelleriti.
Original link - Inside Housing
