Funding First For Optima
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Optima Community Association has become one of the first housing associations in the Midlands to successfully bid for monies from the Government’s £200m grant fund to buy unsold stock from developers hit by the slow down in the property market.
With the funding Optima has purchased 84 one and two bedroom apartments at Park Central from Crest Nicholson supported by £4.2m in funding from the Housing Corporation. The properties are in three apartment blocks overlooking parkland and will become part of Optima’s affordable housing portfolio in Birmingham, consisting of 2,000 homes located in central Birmingham.
The funding will enable Optima to realise its objective to build over 900 homes by 2015 and tackle the growing demand for affordable homes across the city. 530 homes have been built since 2001 with a further 197 to be delivered by October 2009.
Simon Kimberley, Optima’s Chief Executive said: “The acquisition of these properties provide a good strategic fit for the organisation and allows us to grow without seeing an increase in our management costs which would have been incurred if the properties were not in our vicinity. It will also ensure that the Park Central scheme and ongoing regeneration of Attwood Green will continue broadly as envisaged despite the challenging market conditions we currently operate in.”
In the past seven years Optima has received £21 million in funding from the Housing Corporation to deliver affordable housing.
The Park Central scheme is a joint initiative by Optima, Birmingham City Council and Crest formed in 2001 and is part of Optima’s £550m Attwood Green mixed use, mixed tenure regeneration programme which began in 1999.
By 2009, Park Central will have 1,000 completed homes and already it has an established community of families and young professionals living around eight acres of landscaped parkland.
Park Central has two occupied office developments with a third under construction, a hotel, and a convenience store is due to open in the coming months with plans for a supermarket in the next few years.
Last updated: 23-10-2008
