Regal Homes is in exclusive talks with Grafton Group to buy an 800-home luxury riverside residential development opportunity in London’s Docklands.
The mix for the 3.5-acre Orchard Wharf, E14, has not yet been decided. It could include just luxury flats, or a hotel or PRS homes.
Depending on the mix, the scheme could have a development value of well over £700m, making it Regal’s largest development to date. It sits on the eastern edge of the East India Docks Basin on the Leamouth peninsula, and is currently vacant. Finance has yet to be agreed.
Regal has a London pipeline of 1,000 homes across eight schemes with substantial commercial elements. It has developments on Dalston Lane, E8, Grays Inn Road, WC1, Pentonville Road, N1 and Hackney Road. E2.
The firm recently teamed up with one of the world’s largest private equity companies, KKR, and intends to expand its development activity, buying between one and five sites a year.
As London residential prices have increased, the East India Docks Basin has seen more development. Orchard Wharf sits next to Ballymore’s 804-home Goodluck Hope scheme on the Thames, while further east Galliard and Cain Hoy intend to develop 1,000 homes at Peruvian Wharf.
There have been previous attempts to reactivate the wharf itself for commercial use by the Port of London Authority, with Aggregate Industries UK and London Concrete submitted a planning application and announcing a CPO for the unused site. The parties wanted to use it for a concrete batching and freight handling site. However, in 2016 the court of appeal quashed the CPO, again freeing up the site for residential development.
All parties declined to comment.
To send feedback, e-mail alex.peace@egi.co.uk or tweet @egalexpeace or @estatesgazette
