Quintain kicks off 1,300 Greenwich homes

Regeneration developer Quintain plans to start construction on 1,300 homes on part of its huge Greenwich Peninsula redevelopment after renegotiating the affordable homes requirement with the local council.

The firm said it was “now confident that we can move forward with the delivery” of the 1,300 homes following permission to reduce the amount of affordable housing from 38% to 25%. It will build 500 of these homes itself, selling the remaining plots.

Releasing interim results for the six months to 30 September 2011, the firm also said it had reviewed the whole 3,000-home masterplan for the Peninsula Quays section of the scheme, with planning applications to be submitted for the next two blocks to be submitted next summer.

The firm said it had also made progress on its other major development scheme, the regeneration around Wembley stadium, where it has reduced the affordable housing requirement from 38% in the original permission to 10% today. It spend nearly £45m on construction at Wembley over the last six month, mainly on the construction of a new Hilton hotel and student accommodation.

The period saw the company, which Building revealed this month is to wind up its eco-development venture Bioregional Quintain, return to pre-tax profit, making £3.7m, compared with a £58.8m loss for the same period last year.

Revenue stayed steady at £24.2m, compared with £23.7m last year.

However it said it had not yet managed to refinance all of its £400m debts, saying that it had managed only to refinance 88% of this, and that the “deterioration in the banking markets makes the timing of this delivery uncertain.”