WhatHouse? On Tour: Portobello Square, West London
After a few months without seeing a new homes development first-hand, we could take up an invitation to visit Catalyst Homes’ Portobello Square regeneration scheme for a socially distanced look at the site and its show homes.
I avoided public transport to get there and back, walking from home in King’s Cross to the development at the top end of famous Portobello Road. A few miles, but worth the trip to see this major project.
I was greeted by area sales manager Rachel Papper, and throughout my visit, her enthusiasm for this development and the Catalyst Homes approach to building new homes and communities shone through.
Portobello Square is regenerating the Wornington Green estate with around 1,000 new homes in a variety of tenures including affordable rent, Shared Ownership and market sale. There will also be commercial space and around 9,000 sqm of public space, including a brand new garden square. Each building complements the others across the development through their contemporary architectural design.
Many former residents from the old estate were re-housed with the first phase. Right now, homes are for sale where we met, at Bond Mansions, part of the second of four phases. The whole site is scheduled to complete in 2026. Though there’s no sales office open here right now, house-hunters are invited to book by appointment to take a look at two fully furnished show homes in this block. Catalyst has created a video explaining its new policy to provide safe customer visits.
Both show homes have been fully fitted and decorated by Dawn Kitchener of Blocc Interiors, with considerable input from Rachel. One has two bedrooms, part of 751 sq ft of living space. It illustrates the specification common to all the units for sale here, with underfloor heating, a well-appointed kitchen with high-quality appliances and a spacious private outdoor space. The living/dining space has a Sonos sound system, which is pre-wired for all apartments for residents to implement themselves, if they wish to. This home has plenty of light from floor-to-ceiling glazing – and one ceiling decorated black by Blocc really works here!
We then headed upstairs to the second show apartment, a 551 sq ft one-bedroom home, which has been given an artistic fit-out with a host of colours, fittings, decoration and accessories, which Rachel sees as fitting perfectly with the vibe of the area. The bedroom’s four-poster bed and enormous light fitting is certainly quite leftfield but demonstrates that there’s no need to compromise on the size of furniture and decorations whatever the buyer’s taste.
There are 17 homes remaining for sale at this phase, including three one-bedroom apartments priced at £595,000, which means they qualify for London Help to Buy, where the government provides a 40% equity loan and the buyer only needs a 5% deposit.
Rachel explained that especially since lockdown, the range of other incentives which Catalyst offers have also been very welcome by house-hunters, especially as many are young-professional first-time buyers. These include contributions to a deposit, or Stamp Duty, and fittings such as a furniture pack or window dressings.
She went on to say that since being allowed to reopen offices and show homes subject to strict government guidelines, there have been many signs of pent-up demand from potential buyers who had their property search delayed, and from people who have begun their property search during lockdown.
In the last week alone, Catalyst have had 19 reservations across their developments, including five reservations on Shared Ownership properties. Whilst at Portobello Square, there have been 18 viewings and four property reservations in just two weeks.
With construction underway, the next phase of properties here will be launched in early summer next year, with 122 new homes including 11 available through Shared Ownership.
Find out more at catalyst.homes
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