The Guardian this afternoon reports that the controversial Chelsea Barracks scheme has for the moment been shelved by Qatari Diar. The super prime site bought by the Qatari's for £959m has permission for 325 private and 123 social residential units. It was originally designed by Richard Rogers until Prince Charles intervened, pushing for more traditional architecture and duly got his way.
They paid a huge amount for the site before the crash and so it's not surprising the figures don't stack up for them. The Guardian reports a Qatari source stated "It now seems a huge gamble to deliver all of this. They (the developers) will take their time and see how the numbers stack up in due course". He added that while the scheme could still be built, "they could sell (the site) any time".
All of this seems a bit odd to me. Ok they paid a lot for the site but with super prime residential values going through the roof and foreign investors looking at London's bricks and mortar, it seems like a no-brainer. Like so many of today's developments the stumbling block is most probably the affordable housing. The S106 legal agreement attached to this scheme means the developer has to provide 123 affordable homes as well as £78 million towards off-site affordable housing within the borough. What's the betting the developers will cry viability like so many others are currently doing in order to try and reduce this? Only time will tell...
The Guardian article can be viewed here.
