NEW tenants have moved into environmentally friendly homes in Granton Waterfront, as further funding has been announced for more affordable housing in the area.
The homes in the “Western Villages” are confirmed to be “net zero ready” and have been built on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council.
This comes just one week after the Scottish Government provided the council with a £16m grant to continue regenerating the area.
Though Granton is seeing significant development currently, plans for homes on Edinburgh Marina were refused last year due to an insufficient flood risk assessment.
The first tenants moved into homes at Granton Waterfront yesterday, following residents moving into similar energy efficient homes in Granton Station View in October last year.
Once fully occupied, the site will deliver 388 affordable homes at a mixture of social rent and mid-market rent.
Private prices of homes in the newly built West Shore at Western Villages start at £205,000, though the Edinburgh Living Scheme offers mid-market rental properties for households on low-middle incomes, which are lower than private prices but higher than the local council rent.
Council social housing properties at Granton Station View and Western Villages are available to bid on using “key to choice” through the EdIndex portal online.
The homes at Western Villages consist of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, with wheelchair accessible ground-floor properties and are all constructed to reduce heat loss and utilise renewable energy with solar panels.
There are also facilities for electric car charging in the area and limited car parking spaces to encourage active travel.
The project is part of a wider £1.3bn regeneration of the Granton area, which has been partially funded by the Scottish Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund and will soon see a further 847 new homes, 387 of which will be affordable according to the government.
According to SEPA guidance, the Granton area is potentially vulnerable to flood risk, with the last significant flood recorded in 2010 with damages estimated at £650,000 in total.
Plans for homes in the area were refused permission last year due to an insufficient flood risk assessment which did not properly map the area – the council has been contacted regarding the flood risk of the newly built properties on the harbour.
Housing convener Lezley Marion Cameron, who visited the development yesterday, said: “We’re in the midst of a housing emergency so I’m delighted to see real progress being made to address it with these much-needed homes being delivered in Granton.
“These homes will not only ease our housing shortage, but they will provide individuals and families with comfortable modern homes using the very latest technology to keep energy bills down.
“I wish everyone moving into Western Villages well. It’s encouraging to know that hundreds of other individuals and families will be moving into these new homes at Granton Waterfront in the months ahead.”
She was joined by housing minister Paul McLennan who said: “It was good to see the first residents at Western Villages moving into their new highly energy efficient social and mid-market rent homes.
“These have been supported with over £15m in funding since 2020 from our Affordable Housing Supply Programme.
“As the First Minister announced last week, a further £15.86m grant to the City of Edinburgh Council will be provided from our Housing Infrastructure Fund to help support the building of net zero homes at Granton Waterfront in further phases.
“Since 2007, we have delivered more than 135,000 affordable homes including 95,000 for social rent and 26,306 council homes.
“Furthermore, our budget of £768m for 2025–26 will help to tackle the housing emergency as well as move towards our target of providing 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.”
