Pocket Regen, is our submission for the NLA’s recent competition, ‘New Ideas for Housing London’. Pocket Regen is a new way of managing estate regeneration. By engaging openly with estate communities, and offering real reasons to welcome regeneration, we can provide additional 100% affordable housing for the very people that make this city great.
Like marriage, the secret to a successful first time home purchase is compromise.
In what has become a supply-starved London housing market effected by rapidly rising prices, Pocket have built their model around the one facet that first time buyers are not willing to compromise on – location.
The London-based developer prioritises location over size allowing it to deliver first-time buyer homes in good commuting locations at a minimum of 20% below the open market rate capped at the current top price of £260,000.
“Pocket brings a rational approach together with the sort of design flair that makes spaces feel generous and desirable. As the current crisis forces new thinking, Pocket’s initiatives provide a positive example to other housing providers when new ideas are thin on the ground.” Peter Murray, New London Architecture
There is a huge need for affordable housing in London. The young, hardworking Londoners who make our city tick cannot live near where they work. City makers are keen to save up and get on the housing ladder but costs and prices are just rising year on year and wages aren’t keeping pace. But Pocket has a great solution: our homes are close to transport links, sold with at least a 20% discount to market and are 100% owner-owned.
Our newest development Western Road UB2 (pictured above) is launching for sale this month and consists of 36 one bedroom Pocket homes in Southall, in the borough of Ealing. With their hefty discount, cleverly designed interiors and generous communal gardens they are going to sell fast… so we are out and about this autumn spreading the word and making sure as many city makers as possible have the opportunity to buy these Pocket homes. We’re launching more schemes across London later in the year and into 2016, so even if Ealing isn’t your area, come and say hello!
London’s a big place, and most developers think big when it comes to land. Big regeneration opportunities with big profits attached. At Pocket, we take a different approach. Our mission is to provide as much affordable housing as we can on a site, so we tend to favour ‘infill’ sites; land that either doesn’t have any particular purpose, or is no longer used for the purpose it was previously intended. Idle land. This includes old garage sites which have become under-used storage facilities for junk, community centres which are not used by the community any more, or just spaces between buildings.
It makes sense to develop these sites. They’re already within an existing community, they can tap into the existing infrastructure and services, they allow the densification of London, rather than pushing its urban boundary out into the green belt. Here are some examples of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of ongoing projects which are a fairly typical plot size of anything up to 1 acre:
Marischal Road SE13, Lewisham. Disused garages. 0.185 acres. 26 Pocket homes
This site in Marischal Road SE13 is perfect for Pocket. We’ve designed a scheme that brings 26 Pocket compact apartments to Lewisham, just a stone’s throw from the bustling market, shopping centre and excellent transport links of Lewisham DLR and overland. We’re starting construction in August 2015, with sales going live in Spring 2016.
Pocket has just received consent from the planning committee to proceed to build a 24 storey tower of affordable homes in Wandsworth. This is big news! A tower in Wandsworth with 63 Pocket homes might not make us a giant in the world of property development but it does symbolise the fact that we’ve come of age. London desperately needs more starter homes for its city makers, and we’re working hard to help deliver as many as we can. Moving into the world of towers means we can deliver more affordable homes on a tight plot of land in a great location.
But what about the teapots?
Our first tower at Mapleton Crescent SW18 is designed by award-winning architects Metropolitan Workshop. Met Workshop are well known for their innovative work, and we briefed them to come up with a proposal for this scheme that contributed positively to the local area, and stood as a thing of beauty – while at the same time delivering affordable new homes for the way London’s city makers live today. Met Workshop are working with ceramiscist Loraine Rutt to develop a range of striking green tiles with which to clad the building.
By Lucian Smithers, Director of Sales and Marketing, Pocket
At Pocket we have all read ‘The Triumph of the City’ by Ed Glaeser. Glaeser’s views about what makes cities great and how they can remain successful give heavyweight academic substance to Pocket’s belief in delivering starter homes for London’s city makers – you could even say we’re groupies.
So you can imagine our excitement at the prospect of hearing him talk in the UK last month at Warwick Business school’s outpost in the Shard. He was also interviewed in the Guardian, and even better, he popped in to visit Pocket and hear more about our philosophy and business model – we think he liked it!
Glaeser’s work focuses on the power of successful cities. Note the word “successful.” His studies cover huge geographical and historical distances to find the lessons about how great cities have managed to thrive and in some cases come back from the brink. And his visit to London meant he gave some thought to the similarities, and differences, between the UK and our friends across the Atlantic. He pulls out the simplest observations from a huge set of data and experiences, and here are some of the nuggets of genius that we took away for London: Read More
By Tom Westwood, Waugh Thistleton Architects, Associate
Marcon Place E8 is Waugh Thistleton’s first built project for Pocket, and Pocket’s first endeavour in Hackney – working together proved a perfect match. We’ve done a good amount of work in the Borough, and Pocket knows the way to getting good quality, fairly-priced housing in the areas that people want to live and work.
At the forefront of Marcon Place E8 was always the commitment to strong design, so we worked closely with the team at Pocket to create smart, thoughtful, and welcoming spaces. What ultimately developed is a design that proves that high density housing can employ natural materials, a human scale and a generosity of communal spaces. It proves to residents that there need not be a compromise in the quality of accommodation required to enjoy the benefits of central London living.
Marcon Place’s 31 homes are arranged in four blocks around a landscaped courtyard which forms the heart of the scheme. This common outdoor area inspires community living and gives Marcon Place that splash of green all tenants desire.
Last year, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) produced a very useful report into housing in London, ‘Getting our house in order’. The report aimed to build a ‘business case’ for the creation of more homes in the Capital, noting the urgent need for more homes at all levels in London, and urging Government (national, regional and local) to work together to deliver more homes for London’s workforce.
This week LCCI has published a follow-up paper, ‘Unlocking London’s Housing Potential’, focusing on one of the main recommendations in their original report – the release of public land for housing. Public land release is especially important for the development of affordable housing yet, as Pocket is quoted as saying in the report, it can take up to four times longer to acquire land and planning on public sector sites in London than private acquisitions. This can be crippling for a small developer like Pocket.
Housing for the people who make London tick
More needs to be done to support the development of housing in London, especially housing that is specifically designed for the crucial workforce that keeps the city ticking. The report highlights that ‘51% of London firms believe the lack of housing… was the issue having the most impact on their business…’. London needs the right kind of housing in the right locations in order to keep these talented and valuable people living in, and contributing to, their communities. We have been banging this drum since Pocket started building affordable homes, so it’s great to have more voices added to this call. Read More
The London property market is getting more and more expensive, so it makes sense that young buyers are finding they need to ‘compromise’ to get their foot on the housing ladder – moving to less popular, less central areas is all part of London’s evolution, and buyers are expecting less and less space as they go further out. But is having less space really a compromise?
More space costs more to furnish, more to heat, and gives you more room to keep more stuff, while today’s young workforce is trying to minimize all of this.
Are we suffering from Stuffocation?
James Wallman’s book Stuffocation (www.stuffocation.org) describes that, the consumer culture of the west is starting to wane; people are finding that more does not mean better. He looks at this from a range of angles and all the indicators seem to be pointing in the same direction. The new digital generation coming of age now can be viewed from various intellectual perspectives:
Marcon Place E8 will be the next Pocket building to welcome residents – 28 city makers will be moving into their very first homes, just a stone’s throw from Hackney Downs station, within the next couple of months. We’re in the final throes of construction, and the Pocket team went to check on progress last week. This handsome brick building is looking really good, especially in the Spring sunshine! It was amazing to stand in the courtyard and imagine the activity this central communal outdoor space will be seeing over the years to come. The external stairwells have a striking red paint finish, with lovely tactile timber hand rails, and there’s specially-designed timber slatting to allow views into the courtyard. We’re introducing the residents to each other this week at a local wine bar, and now all we need is a move in date! The last few weeks of a construction project are always tight and slightly stressful as we try to achieve all the sign-offs and checks to confirm that the building is ready for occupation, and manage the expectations and excitement of the buyers. Not long to go now, Pocket people!
