Hundreds of new homes for rent are planned for Glasgow city centre in a co-living development where residents share living spaces.
Watkin Jones Group has submitted an application for Portcullis House, the former HMRC building on India Street at Charing Cross.
It will see the demolition of the existing building and construction of a build-to-rent (BTR) and a shared living development creating 685 new homes.
This is made up of a 279-unit BTR development to the north of the site, adjacent to Charing Cross Station, and a 406 studio Co-Living development to the south of the site, adjacent to the Scottish Power Building.
Co-living owners usually share meals and spend time in common living areas and there will often be programmed events and activities while pets are also often permitted.
In Berlin there is Quarters, a co-living developer that now has properties in New York and Chicago and has just announced a $1bn expansion to build many more across the US and Europe. Rent for another development in London is around £1,085 a month. A spokesman for the Glasgow development said affordability compared to other rental options would be one of the 'key' benefits.
BTR is a relatively new model for creating new homes in the UK but is more popular in Europe and the United States. All the properties are built for rent, not for sale and are usually owned by a pension provider that wants to maintain a secure income to pay its members.
Residents are offered long-term security of tenure and have access to wider on-site amenities, such as gyms and workspaces.
READ MORE: Glasgow city centre 'castles in the sky' providing a quiet life
The development will make use of low and zero carbon technologies such as heat pumps and low energy lighting and no on-site parking for residents is proposed.
The public will be able to access a bar on the top floor of the development, through a booking system.
The company said it carried out extensive consultation with local representatives, community groups and political representatives.
Iain Smith, Planning Director for Watkin Jones Group said: “We’re thrilled to submit our planning application for this exciting scheme at Portcullis House, regenerating a brownfield site to create sustainable new homes for people in the city.
"By ensuring there is a good supply of high-quality rented housing in Glasgow we will meet growing demand, which will benefit people across the local area and beyond.
“The design of our proposed homes will help to keep skilled young people in the city who will boost Glasgow’s economy.
READ MORE: 'Car free' residential development planned for site of former cinema in Glasgow city centre
"These people are actively looking for a sustainable and desirable place to live in central location with excellent transport links and places to shop or socialise.
"This will repopulate the city centre and benefit local businesses as part of an overall renewal of the west end.
There is huge demand in Glasgow for these homes, which offers long-term security of tenure, combined with the flexibility of renting.”
Glasgow City Council’s City Centre Living Strategy outlines a target to double the city centre’s population to 40,000 over the next 15 years.
The city is said to have fallen behind others such as Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool in its objective.
READ MORE: Glasgow School of Art to be involved in £2.2million re-design of George Square
Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce added: “Delivering high-quality housing such as this, which is desperately needed, will address increasing demand.
"It will also serve to retain skilled young people in the city as well as regenerating the city centre, which is a key aspiration for the city council."
The Watkin Jones Group has undertaken major BTR schemes throughout the UK and is building a co-living scheme in Exeter with another going through the planning process.
The Portcullis House scheme has been designed by architect Hawkins Brown’s local office in Glasgow.
They received consent proposal for a 4- star hotel at St Vincent Street and are also currently masterplanners for the regeneration of Custom House Quay and Carlton Place for GCC.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel