Sadiq Khan has agreed a £10m investment for developer Apex Airspace to deliver affordable homes.
Apex is the first airspace developer to receive funding from the Mayor’s Innovation Fund.
Khan has a target to deliver 14,000 affordable starts in the capital this year.
The finance supports his commitment to promote innovation and home delivery on small sites. It will enable Apex to partner with councils, housing associations and private market freeholders on new development opportunities.
The developer has delivered pilot schemes in Camden and West Hampstead, using modular homes built off-site and then craned on to rooftops. It claims that airspace development has the potential to deliver up to 180,000 homes in London, representing 42% of the need identified by the London Plan up to 2025.
James Murray, deputy mayor for housing and residential development, said: “Our £10m loan will help Apex work with councils and housing associations to use their innovative approach of building on existing rooftops, so we can create more of the new genuinely affordable homes that Londoners so desperately need.”
Arshad Bhatti, founder and chief executive of Apex Airspace, said: “With a robust pipeline, this £10m funding will help deliver much-needed new homes to people across the capital, who suffer at the hands of a lack of affordability, a lack of choice and longer commutes.”
Pictured: Val Bagnall (managing director at Apex Housing Group), Arshad Bhatti and James Murray
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