New Homes for up to 35 People at Balvonie Braes, Inverness

Work has started on a new £1million affordable housing development at the former Scotland’s Housing Expo site, providing nine new homes for rent under the Scottish Government’s innovative National Housing Trust (NHT) initiative.

Developed by Inverness-based Compass Building on our behalf, the Balvonie Braes development will provide a range of four flats and five terraced homes for mid-market rent and will be completed by August 2015.

We are the first registered social landlord to deliver new homes as part of the NHT initiative, which was developed by the Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) to help increase the supply of homes at affordable rent in areas where there is demand.

The scheme enables tenants to rent at affordable mid-market rates for at least five years before being given priority to buy the property at the end of the rental period.

Calum Macaulay, our Chief Executive, commented: “We are pleased to be at the forefront of delivering new models of affordable housing supply, once again. There is huge demand for housing in Inverness at all tiers of the market, and by developing new and innovative schemes such as the NHT initiative we can assist more people to secure quality affordable accommodation and make the next steps towards home ownership.”

As well as providing much needed affordable new homes, the project will also provide a welcome boost to the local construction industry. In addition to Compass Building, ArchialNorr, Fairhurst and Partners, KLM Partnership and Armour and Partners have been appointed to provide design, engineering and consultancy services.

Mr Macaulay added: “We are also very pleased to be using local contractors for this project. At Albyn Housing Society we aim to build strong communities, not just quality homes, and by supporting local jobs the project will bring benefit to the local community, even before we hand keys over to their new tenants and owners later next year.”