Former West End homeless hostel to be sold to build new apartments

The sale of a former homeless hostel in the West End to a housing association at a reduced price will go ahead, allowing “much needed” flats to be built.
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Glasgow City Council has agreed to sell Burnbank House, previously a care home, for £394,000 – more than £1.4m lower than the estimated market value.

The buyer, Queens Cross Housing Association, owns two adjoining sheltered accommodation blocks and already has planning permission to knock the four-storey building, near to Great Western Road, down.

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It will build 48 flats for social rent for elderly people as there is reportedly high demand in the area.

Burnbank House will be turned into homes for the over 50s.Burnbank House will be turned into homes for the over 50s.
Burnbank House will be turned into homes for the over 50s.

A council official said the former hostel is “vacant and boarded up at ground floor level”. She asked councillors on the contracts and property committee to support the sale “at less than best consideration”.

The property was valued at £2.12m for market sale. The gross purchase price is £740,000 but abnormal costs – extra or unusual costs the developer might face on site – have been valued at £346,000, reducing the sum the council will receive to £394,000.

The report said: “The capital receipt will be reduced to an estimated sum of £394,000 which is £1,416,000 lower than the estimated open market value.”

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A second instalment would be paid by the housing association if development costs aren’t as high as expected.

Glasgow’s city administration committee agreed to the principle of the sale in June and granted permission for negotiations, with the final terms to be signed off by the contracts and property committee.

At the time, a council report stated: “It is considered there are exceptional circumstances that warrant a sale at less than best consideration and for the site to be valued at an affordable housing land value.

“These exceptional circumstances include the development of much needed elderly amenity social housing in an area of high demand which would not otherwise be provided by the market.”

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Officials said the value of the site “reflects its location being close to the amenities of Great Western Road which over recent years has become ever more popular with residential developers”.

“Queens Cross Housing Association advised that at the market value, they did not have a viable scheme for the site and sought to agree a price based on an affordable housing land valuation,” the report added.

The land was valued for social housing at £740,000. Councils must sell land for “the best consideration that can reasonably be obtained”, which is usually market value, but an exception can be made if the sale contributes to economic development or regeneration, health, social well being or environmental well being.

It was decided “given the scarcity of suitable sites in the area” that Burnbank House was “the ideal setting for an elderly development”.

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Following the agreement in principle, Cllr Kenny McLean, housing convener, said: “The proposed development at the site would help to meet an identified and emerging need for such housing in this part of the city.

“We have worked with housing associations all across Glasgow to help build homes that improve the quality of life for their residents, and we look forward to a partnership with Queens Cross Housing Association to bring an innovative model of housing that will do the same for the people living there.”

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