World’s Largest British Building Society Enters Construction Industry

The largest building society in the world with over 15 million members, Nationwide Building Society, are dipping their toes into house building.

In a bid to become apart of the elite UK construction sector, the British mutual financial institution will be entering the construction industry after receiving planning permission to build 239 new homes.

The development involves a Nationwide investment in the region of £50m over a number of years. They are not expecting to make any profit from the sales and rentals but any profits will be injected into other Nationwide Community projects.

The scheme is a crucial part of Nationwide’s five-year social investment programme.

The new homes built in Swindon, offering rentals, will include 30% affordable housing, in a multi-million pound not for profit regeneration project.

As the seventh largest cooperative financial institution, the society has revealed that the development will include green space, a park with children’s play area and community meeting space, and claim it “focuses on creating a multi-generational and supportive community, not just houses”.

The 239 new homes will be mainly terraced houses or maisonettes, with a small block of apartments.

Those people purchasing property on the development who prefer a more communal choice will be given at least one parking space and either a private garden or access to shared gardens.

The development will be an array of two, three and four-bed homes for sale or rent, along with 71 affordable one, two and three-bed apartments and houses too.

Nationwide has joined forces with Igloo Regeneration to deliver “contemporary designs, using traditional quality materials, creating bespoke homes with light and space through higher ceilings, larger windows and terraces, and a focus on energy efficiency.”

The building of the new homes in Swindon is due to start by the end of the year, with the first phase of homes being ready from Spring 2021.

Another house builder in the industry will go some way in helping the Government’s target of 300,000 new homes per year by the middle of the next decade. However, construction in the UK has slumped to its slowest output for more than a decade in June, according to The IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index.

Today's Conveyancer