GLA gives green light for 213-home co-living scheme

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has given the green light to plans for a 213-unit co-living development.

The GLA’s decision last week to grant a Stage 2 consent for the scheme, follows Wandsworth council issuing planning permission in principle for Balance Out Living’s debut scheme in Battersea in February. The scheme was referred to London mayor Sadiq Khan’s pan-capital authority on the grounds that it is big enough to count as a strategically important development.

Balance Out Living, which is backed by American funding giant Oaktree Capital, said that only two other co-living schemes in London – comprising 817-units and 60-units in Croydon and Ealing respectively- have received this stage 2 consent.

The developer agreed a contribution of £3.3m for affordable housing with Wandsworth before the scheme was presented by officers to the council’s planning committee in February.

According to the officers’ report, the co-living scheme will ease pressure to convert local family homes by providing tenants with a private renting option to shared housing.

Balance Out Living is proposing to erect a building, ranging in height from four to 18 storeys, on the site that was formerly occupied by a caretaker’s residence for the adjacent secondary school.

Under the plans, an existing basement would be used for a treatment room, gym, bar/lounge, laundrette, plant as well as bike and bin stores.

The ground floor would house flexible co-working space, a meeting room, café, reception, lounge, communal kitchen, and plant.

Two further communal kitchens would be located on the development’s fourth and 16^th floors.

The GLA is currently considering feedback to consultation on draft guidance on large-scale purpose-built shared living development.

See also>> The co-living mini-boom and why not everyone is happy about it

Oaktree Capital in February announced plans to create a £1bn portfolio of co-living homes in London

Zafar Bhunnoo, co-founder and co-chief executive of Balance Out Living, said: “This consent is a vote of growing confidence in the co-living sector as well as the quality of our development.

“A stage 2 referral is important because it is a real litmus test against the London Plan policies and establishes — particularly in the case of asset classes that aren’t clearly defined in the policy framework — that it is actively supported by the GLA.

“Achieving this consent under Sui Generis classification is evidence of the GLA’s receptiveness to expanding the parameters that are available to securing consents for co-living, and helping to accommodate the broad range of demographics that call London home.”