Housing Shortage London, UK Unused Space, Clever Property Design, England Valuable Land Supply

Land Converter, London Housing Shortage

UK Capital Property Parcelling News – brownfield sites for Cube Haus modular homes

3 Dec 2017

Land Converter, London Housing Shortage Solutions

Sell your unused back garden, garage or roof space to help solve London’s housing shortage

People with unused back gardens, derelict garages, empty rooftops, and dilapidated workshops / light Industrial buildings could be sitting on valuable land for housing, says new business Land Converter.

The recently launched operation, which encompasses a house developer arm, Cube Haus, is a fresh ethical approach to developing properties in the capital, focusing on London’s awkward and unused spaces. Land Converter will identify and buy brownfield sites from as small as 500 square feet on which Cube Haus will build their high-end, energy-efficient modular homes.

By buying and developing small parcels of land, working transparently with property sellers and paying them a percentage of the market value of the final property, they aim to challenge the traditional model and reputation of property development.

Land Converter is approaching home and land owners across London directly about buying their unused space, and will be speaking to specific London borough councils about potential sites too. Air space, unused gardens and garages are all potential sites for new homes.

Land Converter Director, Paul Tully, said: “There’s been a lot about prefab or flat-pack homes in the media recently. They’re being touted as a brilliant solution to the housing shortage, especially in big cities like London. But they can be as speedy to build, as energy efficient and as eco-friendly as you like – the issue is still where to build them. And that’s where we’re being creative. We’re about marrying awkward and unused space with imagination and intelligent design, and creating beautiful new homes within established communities.”

The largest of Cube Haus’ prefabricated homes will have an equivalent floor area (1500 square feet) and sell at a price equivalent to an average two-up-two-down London terrace in the same area. The smallest Cube Haus, branded ‘Cub house’, will be 560 square feet and would suit a single professional or a couple.

Slip House Brixton design by Carl Turner Architect:

photo © Tim Crocker

To design their energy-efficient homes, Cube Haus is working with four leading British architectural practices and designers: Adjaye Associates, Faye Toogood, Carl Turner (winner of the RIBA Manser Medal for the Slip House) and Skene Catling de la Peña (winner of the RIBA 2015 House of the Year award for the Flint House). The houses will be prefabricated from sustainable materials, in factories in the UK, minimising waste in the building process, as well as cutting down on construction time and the inconvenience for neighbours. The modular design will mean that they can be configured to fit any shape or size of land plot.

Flint House, Waddesdon design by Skene Catling de la Peña:

photograph : James Morris

Philip Bueno de Mesquita, one of Cube Haus’ directors, commented: “We’re wanting to give Londoners the best of modern British design and manufacturing. We’ve seen how some of our most creative designers have put their brainpower into trying to solve London’s housing issues. They’ve got great ideas but have been stymied when it comes to building more than one or two properties because of the way land has been made available and developed in the past. That’s what we want to challenge – the UK’s whole housing development model. Or at least London’s to start with.”

The company is making full use of new materials and technologies, including augmented reality to enable home buyers to visualise and explore their home during the design phase. It will be working with London estate agency The Modern House to market its properties and connect them to buyers looking for sophisticated contemporary homes.

The companies will take advantage of The Homes and Communities Agency’s £3-billion Home Building Fund, which aims to support custom builders and regeneration specialists, alongside larger developers and builders.

Land Converter London

Sellers can apply for a free assessment of their space on the Land Converter website at http://landconverter.co.uk/appraisal/
Land Converter (http://landconverter.co.uk) and Cube Haus were established in 2016 by three London entrepreneurs and are two branded divisions of a single property development company.

Address: 15, Cleve Studios, Boundary St, London E2 7JD, UK
Phone: +44 20 7739 2400

Location: Boundary Street, London, E2 7JD, England, UK