Completion for 89 affordable homes in Manchester city centre
Great Places Housing Group has wrapped work on Dovecote House off Laystall Street, two years after main contractor Eric Wright Construction started on site.
Situated just inside of the inner Ring Road, the city centre residential block includes 31 social rent apartments and 58 rent-to-buy flats across its 10 storeys. The homes have either one or two bedrooms and were designed by OMI Architects. Residents have access to a private landscaped courtyard as well.
The project cost £29m to deliver, receiving funding support from Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Brownfield Housing Fund and from Homes England, which is a strategic partner of Great Places.
Take-up on the homes has been strong since the work concluded in June. The social rent properties were allocated through Manchester Move, which received hundreds of bids for each of the flats.
Plumlife Homes is managing the rent-to-buy apartments, where tenants will pay 80% of the market rate for at least five years to enable them to save up for a deposit for the home.
Helen Spencer, executive director of Growth at Great Places, said: “A safe, secure and affordable home can make a huge difference to people’s lives. This development will give more people the chance to live close to work, education and opportunities in the heart of Manchester…
“This is about more than building homes. It’s about creating opportunities, supporting communities and making sure Manchester remains a place where people from all backgrounds can live and thrive.”
Jeremy Hartley, chief executive of Eric Wright Group, said the project was “a testament to the strong partnership we have built with Great Places”.
He added: “Together, we share a commitment to delivering high-quality, affordable homes that create lasting benefits for the local Manchester community. While this was a technically complex project, in a highly constrained city centre location, the collaboration, innovation and dedication shown by everyone involved has delivered an outstanding development that we can all be proud of.”
Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration Cllr Gavin White attended the completion celebration for Dovecote House.
He said: “The development is a special moment for city centre affordable housing – the first social rent homes inside the inner ring road for a generation.
This is helping more Manchester people have more choice about where they live, while helping meet demand for genuinely affordable housing option in the centre of the city and moving us closer to achieving our ambitious target of building at least 10,000 affordable homes across the city through to 2032 – 3,000 of which will be in the city centre.
“And it’s the strong partnerships we have with housing providers like Great Places that are helping to deliver the homes Manchester people need.”
Dovecote House sits on the former Armitage Terracotta Works plot and next to the grade two-listed Armitage Showroom. The showroom was transformed into a 5,000 sq ft office building by McCauls in 2023.
In addition to Eric Wright and OMI, the project team for Dovecote House included Clancy Consulting and CPC Project Services.
