Berkeley Homes has bought the Horlicks site in Slough for a £300m scheme as it continues its push outside of London.
GSK was selling the 12.8 acre site without planning, although Slough Council has already indicated it could accommodate a scheme of more than 750 homes.
Due to its proximity to the railway station and the arrival of Crossrail in 2019 it could accommodate far more than this.
Slough and other satellite towns around London have seen a surge in interest due to unaffordable pricing in London, a slow sales market and less favourable planning policy.
While this is Berkeley’s first move into Slough, it has already opened a Birmingham arm and eyed other regional acquisitions.
Berkeley Homes (Oxford and Chiltern) chairman Andrew-Saunders-Davies said: “Slough Borough Council is driving an ambitious regeneration programme and we look forward to collaborating with them and local residents to shape a fantastic new part of the community.”
Slough itself has a large amount of industrial land that could be turned into residential. It is one of the next towns on the radar for developers, led by the likes of Berkeley and Morgan Sindall’s partnership with the council to bring forward a number of sites through the Slough Urban Renewal Partnership.
Nearby, Maidenhead has seen a recent flurry of interest too with CALA Homes being selected to build out the 2,000 home Maidenhead Golf Course site while HUB and Smedvig have submitted regeneration plans for the town centre.
Luton, Milton Keynes, Reading, Woking and other towns within a short commute from London have seen a similar level of interest.
GSK announced the sale of the Horlicks site in 2017, when it revealed it was selling off the Horlicks business. It said at the time it wanted to concentrate on its drugs business, and was exploring options to divest some other smaller non-core nutrition brands. It sold its former HQ site in Greenford to Greystar in 2016.
CBRE director Chris Georganas said: “The brownfield site is technically constrained by infrastructure relating to the historic production at the site, CBRE has worked diligently to distil and disseminate the opportunity to the market which enabled the transaction to be completed in very expedient timescales.”
CBRE advised GSK on the sale.
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