Ready For Residents! New Affordable Homes At Chatham Waters Reaches Practical Completion

Peel Waters and Legal & General Affordable Homes (LGAH) have marked a major construction milestone at Cavalier Court, a new affordable housing development located at Chatham Waters.

Waterside regeneration specialists Peel Waters, development owners Legal & General Affordable Homes, contractors O’Halloran & O’Brien and members of Medway Council came together to mark the practical completion of the first block at Cavalier Court, delivering much-needed affordable housing for Medway.

Located within the waterside neighbourhood of Chatham Waters and offering one- and two- bedroom apartments, as well as three- bedroom townhouses, the 237 Shared Ownership and affordable rent homes at Cavalier Court will help customers to have the home they need.

Cavalier Court will be one of LGAH’s largest affordable developments in the UK. By working in close partnership with Peel Waters; Legal & General Affordable Homes has been able to unlock the regeneration of this key site within Chatham Waters providing high-quality affordable homes for local residents, alongside the other amenities, shopping and leisure facilities located at Chatham Waters.

Among the 237 new homes,139 homes will be available for Shared Ownership with LGAH. 98 of the homes will be available for Affordable Rent at the Local Housing Allowance level, providing homes to those on Medway Council’s affordable housing waiting list.

Shared Ownership supports those who are unable to purchase a property on the open market, enabling the resident to buy a portion of a property whilst paying rent on the remainder of the portion each month. Through a process called staircasing, the buyer can increase the percentage that they own up to 100 per cent by buying further shares should they wish to.

Shared Ownership homes are typically much more affordable per month when compared to private renting, giving the new residents an opportunity to put down roots and look towards their future.

LGAH’s significant investment in new affordable homes in Medway represents a key milestone for the area’s regeneration and a strong sign of demand in Chatham Waters as a location.

Located next to the river Medway, neighbouring four universities and just 36 minutes from London, Chatham Waters is being transformed by Peel Waters into one of the most desirable locations to live, work and study in Medway.

Peel has already invested over £125 million into Chatham Waters, to create new homes, the onsite Waterfront UTC, improved infrastructure and inviting spaces and public realm, including the waterfront promenade which future residents and the wider community will be able to utilise for waterside events, socials and wellbeing.

Ben Denton, Chief Executive at Legal & General Affordable Homes, said:

“Strong partnerships and collaboration are key to meeting the country’s demand for affordable housing, and Cavalier Court is one of our most ambitious development partnerships to date.

“Marking this major construction milestone at is a huge achievement as we take a big step closer to providing more affordable homes to people living or relocating to this part of Kent – joining the vibrant new waterfront community.

“At Legal & General Affordable Homes, our mission is to build more affordable housing in location where it’s needed most, making well-built, energy-efficient homes accessible to more people. 

“Our partnership with Peel Waters and Medway Council has helped us delivery on that mission.”

James Whittaker, Executive Director, Peel Waters added:

“We’re proud to have developed Cavalier Court on behalf of Legal & General Affordable Homes, bringing much needed, high-quality affordable housing to Medway.

“Reaching the practical completion of the first block of affordable homes at Cavalier Court is another major milestone for Chatham Waters and we’d like to thank our local building partner O’Halloran & O’Brien for delivering such a high-quality scheme and creating a pipeline of jobs, apprenticeships and work experience opportunities for our local community.

“We have a vision to create a place for everyone, and the key to delivering this is by developing mixed tenure communities across our Peel Waters portfolio. These new affordable homes, which sit alongside the award-winning apartments located at The Kell and Manica, and next to our future care home and elderly living site, will all complement each other, each offering something different and creating an inclusive neighbourhood which broadens and enhances our growing waterside community here at Chatham Waters.”

Councillor Naushabah Khan, Portfolio Holder for Housing and Property at Medway Council and was in attendance of the celebrations said:

“I was delighted to attend and formally open and cut the ribbon at Cavalier Court. It was great to the see the outcome of collaborative work between Peel Waters, Legal & General Affordable Homes, and Medway Council in bringing forward a scheme with 25% affordable housing. This latest part of the Chatham Waters development delivers 139 Shared Ownership homes and 98 at affordable rent. This will be a real help to people living and working in Medway, who will be given first priority for this brilliant, high-quality development.”

Kieran Duggan, Group Chief Executive of O’Halloran & O’Brien who led on the construction of Cavalier Court also added: “As a local contractor we at Keady Construction (part of the O’Halloran and O’Brien Group) are delighted to be part of this brilliant Urban regeneration scheme.

“We would like to pass on our thanks and appreciation to the key stakeholders L&Q, Peel and Medway Council for giving us this opportunity and for having the vision to make it happen. Hopefully there will be many more schemes like this in Chatham and the Medway Towns and that this historically relevant riverside location, so convenient to London, will grow to its full potential.

“We would also like to thank our site team, who have worked so diligently and delivered so many quality homes and our subcontractors on the scheme who have been excellent throughout.

 “At Keady we are keenly focusing on optimising our designs to allow us to build at an affordable cost and to greatly reduce the embedded carbon content of our buildings and are concentrating on quality so that the end result is great to live in.”

The new Shared Ownership homes located at Chatham Waters in Kent are on sale now and their show home and marketing suite will be open from Saturday 20th January 2024.

The second phase of the development is expected to be completed by summer 2024.

For more information and to register your interest, you can visit Legal & General Affordable Homes website at: cavalier-court.co.uk

To find out more about Chatham Waters visit www.peelwaters.co.uk