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Boost for housing market as Japan’s biggest housebuilder moves into UK

Japan’s biggest housebuilder will move into the UK housing market with immediate effect after striking a multi-million pound deal that will see it work with Homes England and Urban Splash to deliver thousands of new homes across England.

Sekisui House, one of the world’s leading housebuilders, are pioneers of modern methods of construction, where homes are built in factories and then shipped out to sites.

The £90m deal, which has been facilitated by lead real estate and financial advisor JLL, comprises a total new investment of £55m into regeneration company Urban Splash’s ‘House’ development business. It provides a significant boost to the UK’s modular housing industry and will help to speed up production of much-needed new homes.

Sekisui House have invested £22m of new equity, with £30m of equity and debt funding coming from the Government’s Home Building Fund, administered through Homes England.

Experienced entrepreneur Noel McKee, founder of We Buy Any Car, has also made a sizeable investment in the new partnership and will take an incremental c 5% stake.

Yoshihiro Nakai, President and Representative Director of Sekisui House Ltd said “We are extremely pleased to be able to work together with Homes England and Urban Splash to establish our operations and help to create outstanding communities in the UK.

“Using modern methods of construction to build high quality homes with short build times is one of our company’s great strengths. Our technology and know-how can help resolve pressing social issues in the UK, and I want to see us play our part effective immediately. These operations can also help bring vitality to UK regions, and we will work to make the strongest connections with the local communities.”

‘House’ is expected to deliver thousands of homes across England using modern methods of construction.

Minister of State for Housing, Kit Malthouse MP, added “Sekisui House bring with them a proven track record in harnessing the modern methods of construction that are transforming home building.

“Backed by Government investment, this announcement will support our urgent mission to deliver more, better and faster home construction to ensure a new generation can realise the dream of home ownership.”

Homes England, the government’s housing accelerator, has been instrumental in providing significant financial support and expertise to the new partnership as well as providing assurance to the investors.

Sir Edward Lister, Chair of Homes England, commented “When Homes England launched last year we said we’d disrupt the housing market to increase the pace of construction. By helping bring one of the world’s largest and most innovative housebuilders to UK shores, we’re putting our money where our mouth is.

“By creating a more diverse landscape – where smaller builders such as Urban Splash get a stronger foothold – we’re rebuilding the building industry; driving up quality and improving consumer choice.”

Tom Bloxham MBE, Chairman of Urban Splash, concluded “We believe that there is a real opportunity in the UK housebuilding industry. We hope to leverage our 25 years of place-making experience and our recent investments into modular housing by bringing in new partners; having looked far and wide we chose Sekisui House from Japan because of the company’s unrivalled global experience in modular construction and shared values and philosophy that we are making homes not units, and a joint belief in the need for a green future.

“We are also proud to partner with Homes England – part of the UK Government – because of their commitment to modular and desire to grow capacity in the UK housing business.

“We are incredibly excited about the accelerated production of much-needed homes and evolving traditional practices as we embrace the benefits of innovative offsite construction. I hope it will establish us as the housing partner of choice for landowners – both public and private.”

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Architects and developers unveil a new kind of home for the 21st century

Urban Splash and shedkm announce the first phase of their new and innovative ‘hoUSe’ project.

Offering customers bespoke, architect-designed homes along the canal in New Islington, Manchester, the development gives buyers the power to choose the layout of their home.

The first 43 hoUSes adopt a traditional terraced approach but internally layouts can be configured to tailor one, two, three, four and five bedroom homes with an open-plan or more traditional feel. The hoUSe project represents an alternative to the established mass house-building schemes across the UK in terms of design and delivery.

These homes in New Islington are made of volumetric timber pods that are delivered to site with minimal disruption to neighbours. The benefits of building homes in this manner is that all standards and tolerances can be monitored in a factory-controlled environment, meaning the houses are warm and incredibly energy efficient, as well as flexible to plan and adapt. With a striking modern design, featuring familiar pitch roof motifs, the hoUSe has proved incredibly popular with the first 43 homes selling out prior to launch. It’s not just the method of construction that is revolutionary but also the manner in which hoUSe was conceived.

Architects shedkm and developers Urban Splash came together to generate the concept in the first instance and this evolved into a delivery system and a search for the right sites; it can easily be adapted for a range of different locations across the UK.

The hoUSes on the New Islington plot are long and slender and range from two to three storeys. The grey exteriors are broken up by thick-banded black window bays that offer occupants with views out over Manchester, while also allowing an abundance of sunlight to enter the rooms. Internal configuring means that owners can select between ‘loft’ or ‘garden’ living, which means that you can opt for the communal areas to be located at the base or top of the house. This approach to upside down living was pioneered by shedkm and Urban Splash at Chimney Pot Park, where gardens were located at first-floor level to create parking spaces below and best use the space available of a tight urban site. This development is now regarded as an exemplar housing scheme in the area.

Director at shedkm, Ian Killick said “We’re delighted to see the first phase of the hoUSe project completed at New Islington. This concept has been a long time in the making and we believe that it is a game-changer to tackle the current housing shortage this country is facing. They also happen to be homes that people are proud to live in.”

Urban Splash Chairman Tom Bloxham MBE added “hoUSe is born from our desire to create something for customers who want to live in well-designed homes and stay in the city centre. We noticed that within UK cities there is a real lack of diversity in terms of new residential stock and our traditional customers – those who had bought and enjoyed Urban Splash flats – would ultimately get older, richer and end up moving to Victorian and Georgian terraces in the suburbs.”

“hoUSe is our way of offering them something in the city. It’s a really exciting prospect and I am as excited by this as I was by our first lofts over 20 years ago. At prices less per square foot than city centre flats, lower maintenance costs than old Victorian houses or blocks of flats, big floorplates, high ceilings and huge windows they have already been well received and I’m certain will be a big part of Urban Splash’s future.”

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