A joint venture between Delancey Oxford Residential (DOOR), APG and Qatari Diar have announced the completion of a forward purchase of over 800 homes for market rent at Middlewood Locks, Greater Manchester.

Middlewood Locks is a 25-acre landmark development which will provide a new waterside neighbourhood created around three large basins of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal.

Get Living, the joint venture’s wholly owned residential, lettings and management platform, will take over operational responsibility for the 800 homes and associated public realm at Middlewood Locks, from completion of the development.

Rick de Blaby, Executive Chairman of Get Living, said: “The location, the masterplan and the building designs at Middlewood Locks provides us with the homes and public realm that enables Get Living to deliver to residents our market-leading offer to our target residents in Manchester and Salford. We’ve been impressed by Scarborough International Properties’ vision for Middlewood Locks and we’re pleased to be partnering with them in this next phase of our ambitious UK growth.”

Middlewood Locks is being developed by FairBriar International, a joint venture of Scarborough International Properties (50%) Metro Holdings of Singapore (25%) and Hualing Group of China (25%).

It is located a short distance from Manchester’s central business district and retail amenities of Manchester city centre. With landscaped areas of green public space, the overall Middlewood Locks scheme will provide a total of 2,215 new homes, 900,000 sq ft of commercial space including a hotel, gym, restaurants and retail.  

Simon Marshall, Joint Chief Executive of Scarborough International Properties, said: “This is a tremendous boost to Middlewood Locks, not just in accelerating the delivery of the overall scheme, but also providing much needed housing to the local area and offering a balance of homes for sale and for rent.”

The first phase of 275 homes will launch this year.