Holme Gardens - a warning to would-be developers

Our client owned a piece of waste ground at the rear of a commercial building, which for 30 years plus had served no purpose to anyone, except fly tippers. Back in 2004, we tried to get planning permission for additional parking, which was refused because of concerns over additional traffic. In 2005, we applied for planning permission for two houses, which were refused because of a shortage of parking. Then, in 2017,  we finally received planning permission for four flats. The next aspect was to ask the planning department to approve the intended bricks. The planners made full use, and beyond, of the two months to give the approval of the bricks, leaving us three days for the builder to get the foundations in the ground, or we would default on the planning condition and so lose the planning approval that was so hard won. In the meantime, we were dealing with contaminated soil, party wall issues, internet and electricity connections. 

The project took 18 months to build- quite long for such a project. Apparently, the builder trusted only one bricklayer, and this bricklayer laid every single brick, meticulously, though I might add. Still, after waiting so many years to get the project out of the ground, a few extra months to guarantee a good quality build and good client/ builder relations didn't seem important. 

The four flats that make up Holme Gardens were completed in 2023, and if by now you are thinking, was it worth it? Well, yes, it was.  

The project sum was £370k, with extras, demolition (including asbestos removal) and landscaping costs of £25k (amounting to 7%), bringing the total build cost to £395k without professional and statutory fees. Building Tectonics fees are not going to be disclosed here. But that's what we do, and if we were not so diligent, steadfast, and enduring, the development may not have been built, or it may not have received so many accolades from locals on how the development fits in with the street scene (it fits in so well that many passersby assume they have always been there. New flats? What new flats?).

The cost works out at just over £2,000 per square metre. For those not in the know, the norm for flats would be at least £2,400 in this location, at this time, and for a small development.

More important perhaps than the monetary numbers to us is the knowledge that we have produced four dwellings, four homes for people to come home to. What I don’t understand, still don’t understand, after half a century of doing this job, is why, oh why, is it so difficult? But that is what we do.

By Tony Keller FCIAT