International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised Swan Housing Association's developer arm on its acquisition of a 15 year term commercial lease of a 116,841 square foot factory in Basildon for the construction of modular housing.
The new factory is Swan's second modular housing factory, located opposite their existing modular housing factory, and will be used to manufacture light gauge steel modular housing. It is anticipated that production at the second factory (known as Factory 2) will start in spring 2021 and, with both factories in full production, Swan expects to be capable of delivering over 1,000 modular homes every year. When fully operational, the new factory is expected to create over 120 additional jobs in Essex.
Geoff Pearce, Swan’s Deputy Chief Executive commented:
“The acquisition of our second factory is a key strategic move, which will give us the additional capacity to build at height using a steel framed approach and to increase the use of pre-manufacturing and componentisation which will deliver more high quality homes, more quickly. Factory 2 makes us well placed to support the Government’s growing focus on MMC – including the recent announcement that development programmes funded through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 include at least 25% off-site manufacture and, in time, will enable us to support our partners to meet their modular delivery targets also. “
Partner Sam Folley lead the property transaction and Katie Saunders lead on the construction aspects, with a large cross-department Trowers team also comprising Sharron Webster, Michael Surry, Eddie O'Hanrahan, Katherine Evans, Abhishek Khanna, Jasmine Ratta and Ugo Ebhogiaye.
Sam said: "We are delighted to support Swan in growing their modular housing capability and capacity and demonstrating that modern methods of construction can be used to deliver the housing targets set by government."
