Regeneration firm Urban Splash will see a Greater Manchester venture fund invest in its modular housing concept hoUSe.
The deal secures investment in the first tranche of 43 homes in New Islington, next door to the Northern Quarter in Manchester city centre.
In July last year company boss Tom Bloxham vowed to push ahead with a stalled Salford building project on Springfield Lane, Trinity, which uses the hoUSe building concept.
Architects shedkm – who also devised Urban Splash’s ‘upside-down’ houses at Chimney Pot Park – have put forward proposals for factory-built pre-fabricated houses on the former site of Greengate Cotton Mills and Springfield Ironworks.
The site was formed by the diversion of the River Irwell through the Anaconda Cut in 1968.
According to planning documents submitted in April 2015, occupants will be offered either a 1,000sq ft house over two storeys, or a 1,500sq ft house over three storeys.
Both use the hoUSe design that can be switched around in advance to create different layouts.
“We have been thinking for years now how we can break the mould and disrupt the house building industry,” they said at the time, “just as we did when he helped create the city centre living boom and loft apartment trend in the 1990s.
“We have long been frustrated with the mediocrity of the UK’s new build housing [which] tends to be unispiring, and often a very poor copy of traditional houses with low ceilings, small windows, little character and tiny rooms you can’t alter.
“We wanted to make houses with high ceilings and big windows and the ability to change layouts so they can specify the exact house they want.”
The company made its name with the Chimney Pot Park ‘upside down houses’ project in Langworthy – but it was never finished and housing association Great Places ended up taking over the scheme in February 2015.
By September 2012 Urban Splash had reported pre-tax losses of £9.3 million and debts of £234.4 million for the previous year.
The deal is with the Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund, part of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund,
Urban Splash director Nathan Cornish said: “hoUSe is becoming an ever more important part of our business model and we’ve completely sold out of the first phase of the scheme at New Islington, even before we’ve opened a show home.
“The backing from GMPVF gives us further confidence that we are investing in both the right product and the modern construction technology we are using to deliver it.”
The deal for hoUSe at New Islington was completed with the assistance of Bilfinger GVA who are retained advisors for the fund.
