Linden Homes will cut the number of four- and five-bedroom homes at its Riverside Mills development as a response to “market conditions”.
This week, Harrogate Borough Council approved a planning application from the developer to alter the already-agreed 95 homes on the site, where work has already begun.
Linden will replace nine 3-bedroom, sixteen 4-bedroom and seven 5-bedroom homes with four 4-bedroom, 34 three-bedroom and eight 2-bedroom homes. This will increase the total number of homes in the development by 14, and the total number of bedrooms by eight.
The application to make the changes was first submitted in October 2019.
The Stray Ferret asked Linden Homes to comment but the company had not responded by the time of publication. A document submitted to HBC by Pegasus Group on behalf of Linden Homes said:
“The proposed scheme seeks [to] maintain the existing infrastructure layout of the site, whilst introducing a number of smaller units to reflect market conditions in Boroughbridge.”
Read more:
There have been signs locally that, since lockdown, housebuilders are being more cautious with developments. In July, the UK’s largest housebuilder, Barratt Homes, pulled out of a 390-home development in Littlethorpe, Ripon.
In August, Harrogate Borough Council agreed to buy 52 homes for £4.5m at Stonebridge Homes’ Castle Hill Farm development on Whinney Lane.
Despite some caution from housebuilders, estate agents in the district have reported a “manic” period since June.
Alex Atkinson, sales manager at Linley & Simpson, told the Stray Ferret that 2020 will end strongly thanks to the government’s Stamp Duty holiday, which ends in March 2021.
He said:
“Since lockdown we’ve seen a massive shift in our village and rural properties. Anything with land or outdoor space is selling like hotcakes at the moment.”
