Together lends £4.9m for low-carbon MMC homes in Kent




Together has provided a £4.86m, 12-month bridging facility to St Arthur Homes to acquire 32 ultra low-carbon homes built on a 250-year-old military barracks site in Chatham, Kent.

The dwellings — built by modular construction group TopHat using modern methods of construction (MMC) — are located on the hillside on the site of Kitchener Barracks, which dates back to 1757.

The loan has enabled the registered social housing provider to purchase the apartments, in order to sell them as affordable properties for first-time buyers and shared ownership.

St Arthur Homes is selling its one-bedroom apartments for between £205,000 and £212,000 and its two-bedroom for between £290,000 and £297,000.

Under the shared ownership scheme, buyers will be able to purchase a percentage of the property while paying rent to the housing association on the remainder of its market value and being able to buy a greater share in the future.

Currently, more than two thirds of the affordable properties have been sold.

Alex Bodie, director of social housing at Together, said: “The popularity of this development is not surprising at a time when first-time buyers or young couples are crying out for high-quality, affordable places to live.

“We have been St Arthur Homes’ finance partner on four previous schemes and have been consistently impressed with their vision to provide much-needed affordable housing in the areas where they’re most needed.

“Kitchener Barracks is an innovative and sustainable development and we’re proud that our finance has been used to meet St Arthur’s ambitions.”

Andrew Shepherd, managing director at TopHat, said: “We are incredibly proud of the beautiful, green new homes we have built at Kitchener Barracks.

“Our homes are designed to be exceptionally energy efficient to run to benefit the people living in them as well as looking great inside and out and being ultra-low carbon to build.”

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