Lochalsh & Skye Housing Association was delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal who visited the Home Farm, Portree development on 22nd July 2008 as part of the celebrations of the housing association’s Silver Jubilee year.
The Princess Royal took the opportunity to meet with many of the individuals who have been involved in the planning, design and construction of the Home Farm project. To mark the occasion, a commemorative key was presented to Mrs Nicola Rust, who is the new tenant of the 500th house to be completed by the Association.
As reported in our previous editions of Development Matters, Home Farm in Portree is a large mixed tenure development of over 200 new homes which Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association is developing. Portree has been identified as one of the most housing stressed areas in the Highlands and this development will meet the affordable housing requirements in Portree over the next 4 years. This scheme will provide a total of
169 new affordable homes
The next handover of homes for Phase 2 of this development takes place during August to October 2008 and will consist of 21 units for affordable rent and 12 for low cost home ownership under the shared equity initiative. The shared equity houses are available as part of the range of assistance from the Scottish Government under its Low-cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT).
These properties will be heated by the District Heating System, initially by a temporary oil boiler.
Once the 55th home on the system is completed, the homes will be heated via the Biomass woodchip boiler.
The house kits for the six new houses in Phase 3 have been erected and it is anticipated that the flats in this phase will start on site in Spring 2009.
For more information about the Home Farm development please contact James Stephenson, (Project Officer, Development) at Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association on 01478 612035 or email james@LSHA.co.uk