Affordable housing development and community car park officially opens in Hale

A new state-of-the-art affordable housing development and community car park have officially opened in Hale.

The homes – 12 affordable shared ownership apartments and ten town houses – have launched in an exclusive scheme near to the village railway station on Brown Street.

The project, a partnership between Trafford Council, developer Novo and Laurus Homes, the development arm of Trafford Housing Trust, has led to the complete transformation of a former car park and brownfield site into an impressive new development.

The Brown Street scheme is a huge public sector/private sector success and supports Trafford Council’s development and regeneration priorities as well as a long-standing commitment for more affordable properties in the borough.

The new pay and display car park is open to the community and has 57 public parking spaces, (including four disabled parking spaces), access to Hale train station platform, four electric car charging points, cycle parking and an additional seven motorbike spaces. The ground floor is open now and the remainder is expected to open next week.

The Laurus Homes apartments, eight one-bedroom and four two-bedroom, offer a great opportunity for people to get on the property ladder in Hale and will be available from as little as £58,738 based on a 25 per cent share of their full market value of £234,950.  With average apartment property prices in the village often in excess of £300,000, interested parties are being advised to register their interest as soon as possible as they are likely to prove very popular. 

While the apartments are just launching, the first townhouses went on sale in July and currently 40% of them are sold or under offer. 

Cllr James Wright, Trafford Council’s Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration, said:

“We are extremely proud of the Brown Street development as it meets our commitment to providing much-needed affordable housing in the borough. More than 55% of this scheme is made up affordable properties in one of the most unaffordable parts of not just Trafford but the whole of the UK.

“The car park will also be a fantastic asset to the local community. Thank you to everyone who worked on and helped deliver this project from the Council itself, Laurus Homes/Trafford Housing Trust and the Novo property group. This is a major achievement for our affordable homes portfolio.”

Ben Fearns, MD of Novo Property Group, said:

 “We are pleased to have worked in partnership with Trafford Council to deliver the Brown Street development. It is a great demonstration of public and private collaboration, and the potential in under-utilised brownfield sites. 

“The community now have a significantly upgraded car park,that is more secure, accessible, and sustainable. Additionally, the site now provides 22 new homes, including a 55% mix of affordable homes; a contribution that we hope raises the profile of affordability in Hale. It is a pleasure to be handing back the car park, along with welcoming on-board Laurus Homes, who will be managing the apartment block. We are looking forward to the first occupiers moving into the town houses.”

Novo worked with award-winning, local P3 Architects, who designed a scheme to an extremely high standard that achieves an impressive array of benefits with very little impact on the existing site.

Zac Worthington, Head of Sales at Laurus Homes, said:

“Hale is an incredibly popular place to live, so we are really pleased to be able to provide affordable homes that will help home seekers get on to the property ladder in the area.  We believe it is the first time that shared ownership properties have been put up for sale in the village.

“Shared ownership is proving a really popular way of buying a home and is available to anyone who does not already own a property.  The initial share of the property is between 25% and 75%, which means a much smaller deposit is required: in this case from as little as £5,874.  This makes them very affordable to customers that may not otherwise have been able to consider living in Hale. As part of Trafford Housing Trust we are committed to tackling the housing crisis, and affordable homes are an important part of those ambitions.”

Anyone interested in the new Hale affordable homes can register at www.laurushomes.co.uk/new-homes/greater-manchester/brown-street. For information on the townhouses, please go to www.novoproperty.co.uk/brown-street

Posted on Thursday 9th December 2021