Major Wandsworth development site hits the market

A private client of Ahli United Bank is to sell a 2.4-acre development site in Wandsworth with planning consent for a 193-unit residential scheme, CoStar News can reveal.

The bank’s client has instructed niche agent Whitmarsh Holt Young to sell Westfield House, a 79,060 sq ft warehouse in Earlsfield which has been earmarked for an 185,000 sq ft residential redevelopment.

The site is to be sold with full vacant possession and is likely to attract the interest of some of the UK’s biggest housebuilders with an appetite for ‘oven-ready’ development sites.

The development will be 20% affordable housing, 85% of which will be for shared ownership use. Market sources said the site is likely to sell for more than £25m.

The consent also includes 2,152 sq ft of A3 café space and basement parking for 152 cars and 230 bicycles.

Planned regeneration of Wandsworth town centre, notably the Ram Brewery, has led to the area becoming an investment hotspot for those buying in the capital.

There are two current implementable planning consents for the Westfield House site. The first is the 2012 renewal of a 2009 permission for 195 units with 27% affordable housing. The most recent consent is the 2012 permission for 193 units with 20% affordable housing.

The scheme will be arranged over three buildings of between three and five storeys.

The S106 payment of £433,000 has been settled by the vendor, meaning no further financial contribution is required.

Detailed planning consent for the site was received prior to the introduction of Wandsworth Borough Council’s CIL. A contribution to the GLA Mayoral CIL is payable.

Until recently the Westfield House site was used as a government file storage depot. Thought to have been built in the 1950s, it comprises a single storey warehouse of steel frame construction with a three-storey office block to the front of the building.