The coastal town of Portstewart in L'Derry is set to boost its provision of social homes with a new housing development.

Construction work has commenced on a 87-home scheme at Coleraine Road by developer Radius Housing, comprising 75 new social homes and 12 affordable homes for sale.

The development will consist of 20 apartments, nine townhouses, 54 semi-detached houses and four detached homes, while 12 of the new homes will be sold as affordable homes, which are designed to provide an affordable housing option.

A total investment of £11.5 million has been pledged to the project, which includes a £5.5m housing association grant from the Department for Communities and £6m of private finance from Radius Housing.

Chair of Radius Development Committee, Ciaran Doherty visited the site to cut the first sod on the development. He was joined at the ceremony by Chris Davis from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Harry Maher from the Department for Communities and Vincent Bradley from BW Social Affordable Housing Ltd, who will be building the new homes.

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Speaking at the sod cutting, Ciaran Doherty Chair of Radius Development Committee, said: "Radius is delighted that work at the Coleraine Road site in Portstewart has commenced. We have been proactively seeking a mixed tenure development opportunity in the area for some time to help address the high level of housing need locally and also the challenges facing first time buyers. We look forward to seeing the work progress on this innovative project with our delivery partners NIHE, DfC and BW Social Affordable Housing Ltd in early 2020.

"At Radius we are committed to creating balanced new neighbourhoods which integrate with the wider community, and to support this we will be working with local schools, community groups and sports clubs, to bring new opportunities and support local projects."

Vincent Bradley, Development Director, Braidwater Group added: "At BW Social Affordable Housing, we are looking forward to working with Radius Housing to begin work on this development, which has wide support from local councillors, MLAs and the Causeway Coast Communities Forum. Our plan will play a role in ensuring that, for the first time in many years, the housing waiting list in the Portstewart area will be reduced. A wide range of housing needs will be met with high quality social and affordable housing and the site is ideally situated close to shops, bus routes and health services. We would like to thank the public for their supportive input at our consultation events."

The new homes in Portstewart are expected to be completed in spring 2022.

(CM/JG)