Over Four Hundred Co-living Flats Planned for Chiswick Tower

Affordable housing proposed for car park by Gunnersbury Station

Chiswick Tower on Chiswick High Road. Picture: Google Streetview

April 25, 2024

The company which has provided funding for the purchase of Chiswick Tower has confirmed details of its client’s plans for the building.

The property lender ASK Partners has given a £18.2 million loan to fund the acquisition of the 18-storey block on Chiswick High Road next to Gunnersbury station.

It says its client plans to repurpose the existing building to include 415 flats in a co-living development. Housing developments of this nature typically have smaller living spaces with communal kitchen and amenity areas and are meant to provide a lower cost option for younger people . In London, co-living units are exempt from the 37 square metre minimum size limit for new build flats.

It is understood that this will not involve demolition and the construction of a new taller building but the refitting of the interior of the structure which was originally put up in 1966 and refurbished in 1995 before it was occupied by the British Standards Institution.

In addition, ASK Partners says that the intention is to develop affordable housing on the 190-space car park site next to the station.

There is no indication at this stage as to whether the project would enable the opening of a second entrance to the station by the car park. Previous owner, Federated Hermes, was unwilling to consider redevelopment of the building.

The statement came just a couple of days before Hounslow Council confirmed its intention to restrict Permitted Development Rights (PDR) in a number of key area across the borough including around Chiswick Town Centre, Power Road and Chiswick Business Park. PDR allows developers to convert office buildings into flats without needing planning permission however, co-living flats do not qualify for PDR and the Chiswick Tower site has not been included as a key area in the Article 4 direction.

The identity of the new owner has not been revealed, but earlier press speculation suggested they were based in the Middle East and ASK Partners has described them as a private investor.

Elliot Blatt, Head of Origination at ASK, “Our client has a very sound business plan to repurpose this building, adding value to an already desirable development site.

“We are definitely seeing appetite for co-living increase, as the set-up has gained in popularity amongst graduates and young professionals.”

One local property professional said that in his view a repurposing of the building rather than a reconstruction made it much less likely that any improvements to the station would be made as part of the development.

He added, “It may be that this would make the issues with overcrowding even worse as, if the flats were fully occupied that would mean a 1% increase in the population of Chiswick, all of whom would be using Gunnersbury as their main station. If the tower is repurposed under permitted development rights then the council will have no leverage to ask for access improvements in local public transport. The suggestion of affordable housing for the car park might indicate that the possibility of a relatively expensive contribution for station improvements is being forestalled.”