Skerries Road, L4 : Overview Of Pilot Project
Consisting of two storey Victorian properties with two or three bedrooms, Skerries Road lies adjacent to the Rockfield regeneration area of Liverpool (L4) and backs on to Anfield stadium, home ground of Liverpool Football Club (LFC).
LFC was instrumental in this refurbishment project by agreeing to sell their ten derelict properties to AHDC at below market price. This allowed AHDC to undertake a practical demonstration of our commitment to refurbishing vacant housing stock and to set a benchmark for the high quality, affordable housing that we aim to provide for sale to owner occupiers or shared ownership schemes.
Skerries Road also provided a real life example of our ‘Market Lift’ theory, as these were the last units to be refurbished and were restricting the potential of the other premises
Having undergone a thorough tendering process, involving five construction specialists, AHDC instructed Flanagan BMS, due to them being a well known Liverpool based building firm. Our commitment to using local labour resulted in Liverpool based Architect and Surveying firms also being contracted, which ensured that the area not only benefited from high quality and affordable housing but that the money invested by AHDC was retained within the local economy.
AYH Plc, another firm based in the North West of England, project managed the Skerries Road development, despite normally only dealing with projects in excess of 100 units. This underlined their belief of the AHDC model and their desire to be associated with our plans to refurbish housing throughout England.
AHDC believes in utilising local knowledge and therefore instructed Sutton Kersh, a very well known and respected Liverpool based estate agent, to sell the refurbished properties. This resulted in all units being reserved upon release, with more than 30 people registering their interest in future refurbished properties. This illustrated the great demand for refurbished properties, as apposed to homogenous new build developments, especially as no marketing was undertaken for the Skerries Road development, so as to allow local people first option on the properties
So as to encourage community development, speculators were deterred by the inclusion of a contract covenant that prevent the properties being let or sold within 3 years
AHDC is delighted that half of the properties were sold to local first time owner occupiers who took advantage of the affordable yet high quality end product. In addition, the other five homes were bought by families that were living in the demolition zone and whose properties were subject to a compulsory purchase order. These households received Homebuy grant assistance from Arena Housing association, the areas largest social landlord. Such experience of working together with RSLs and local authorities will allow AHDC to explore such assisted purchases on future schemes.
Market uplift (the increase in achievable prices because of the change in perception of the area) underpins the AHDC model and gives us the confidence to invest large amounts of privately raised finance into an area’s regeneration. At Skerries Road, said market lift was achieved without external marketing.
AHDC is very pleased that we were able to provide an option for these families to stay within their community and following the announcement that we are the preferred partner for the multi million refurbishment of the 243 unit area of Rockfield, north Liverpool, look forward to rolling out this proven model across England
