Barratt London launches Wembley Park Gardens project in Singapore
/ EdgeProp Singapore |
Wembley Park Gardens, located close to the iconic Wembley Stadium, is the latest development by Barratt London to be launched in Singapore (artist’s impression of Wembley Park Gardens shown at bottom centre) (Picture: Barratt London)
SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - For those living outside the UK, Wembley in north-west London is probably best known for Wembley Stadium. With 90,000 seats, Wembley Stadium is the largest football stadium in the UK, home to England’s national football teams and where the annual FA Cup final takes place. It also serves as a concert venue for some of music’s biggest acts. Last week, pop star Harry Styles performed at a sold-out Wembley Stadium for four nights.
Featuring a distinct lattice arch, the stadium was completed in 2007, replacing its ageing predecessor built in 1923. It marked the first major milestone under a wider regeneration plan focused on Wembley Park, an 85-acre district encompassing Wembley Stadium, the 12,500-seat OVO Arena Wembley next door, and the surrounding site.
About GBP2.5 billion ($4.3 billion) in investments are pumped into the area. Besides the new stadium, there has been a spurt of new developments, including apartments, hotels and retail offerings. Several residential projects are further earmarked for development, contributing to the 11,500 new homes expected to be added to Wembley by 2026.
One such project is Wembley Park Gardens, an apartment complex by Barratt London, the London-focused subsidiary of UK-listed housebuilder Barratt Developments. Located less than a 10-minute walk from Wembley Stadium, the project comprises five residential blocks with 454 units, out of which 302 are one- and two-bedroom flats up for sale, while the remaining 152 units are designated for affordable housing.
The five-block Wembley Park Gardens will house 454 residences, including 302 one- and two-bedders up for private sale (Picture: Barratt London)
The project opened for sale in April and has been well-received by the market thus far, notes Jeremy Marcus, sales and marketing director for Barratt East London. “We sold over 60 units or 50% of our first phase release for Wembley Park Gardens within a month,” he says.
Barratt London will launch Wembley Park Gardens for sale in Singapore from June 24 to 25. Together with One Global Group, its appointed marketing agent in Singapore, the developer will showcase the project at a launch event that will be held at The Great Room at Raffles Hotel Arcade.
Tapping transport links and amenities
Wembley Park Gardens is the third residential project by Barratt London in the area in recent years. In 2017, it completed Wembley Park Gate, a sold-out 211-unit apartment comprising one-, two- and three-bedders. Earlier this year, it completed No 10 Watkin Road, a 229-unit apartment with one- to three-bedders which is also fully taken up.
Today, the ground floor of No 10 Watkin Road serves as a temporary sales gallery for Wembley Park Gardens, situated about a five-minute walk from the latter’s construction site where work has already commenced. The project will be completed in phases from the spring of 2025.
The 152 private sale flats at Wembley Park Gardens comprise one- and two-bedroom apartments from 402 sq ft. Each unit features a private balcony or terrace, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a fully-fitted kitchen with integrated appliances. Prices at Wembley Park Gardens start from GBP379,000.
Show unit for a two-bedroom apartment at Wembley Park Gardens (Picture: The Edge Singapore)
A key selling point for the development is its access to public transport. The project site is located right next to Wembley Park Gardens Station, which sits on the Metropolitan and Jubilee tube lines. This means residents can conveniently travel from the Zone 4 development to Central London via a direct route to key stations such as Bond Street (16 minutes), Kings Cross (21 minutes) and Liverpool Street (25 minutes).
The Wembley Park Gardens site is a former car park owned by Transport for London (TfL) — the government body that oversees most of the capital city’s public transport network. Barratt London secured the 1.6-acre site through a joint venture with TTL Properties, a subsidiary of TfL. As part of the redevelopment, Wembley Park Gardens will include commercial space that will be utilised by TfL for its operations.
Given its transport links, Barratt London’s Marcus believes the project will appeal to both homeowners and investors seeking to rent their property out. Further accentuating its appeal are the various amenities within walking distance that have emerged as part of the regeneration efforts for Wembley Park. This includes outlet mall London Designer Outlet, a cinema, a theatre, various eateries, and Boxpark Wembley, a food and retail park offering street food from around the world and activities such as axe throwing, indoor sports and live music.
Artist’s impression of one of the podium gardens at Wembley Park Gardens (Picture: Barratt London)
Wembley Park exudes a vibrant atmosphere, with some 10,000 residents currently populating the various apartment blocks that surround the stadium. The area is also popular with students, with several student accommodations in the neighbourhood. Several London universities, including the London School of Economics and Political Science, Imperial College and University College London are less than an hour’s commute away by train.
Track record in regeneration
In marketing Wembley Park Gardens, Barratt London is positioning the project as an opportunity for buyers to tap into the area’s compelling regeneration story. Citing projections from JLL, Marcus highlights that over the next 10 years, Wembley property prices are expected to grow 57%. Rental rates in Wembley have also seen healthy growth, surging 49% in the last five years, outpacing the 23% growth for London over the same period. Currently, properties in the area enjoy rental yields of around 5%, notes Marcus.
Strong capital growth is a hallmark for regeneration projects in London, which can unlock value in a particular area through improvements in infrastructure, connectivity, housing and amenities, comments Joe Antoniazzi, head of sales for Barratt West London. He adds that as the UK’s largest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, which delivers around 18,000 homes a year, has established a strong track record in delivering successful projects within regeneration schemes across the UK.
In the Greater London area, one of its landmark projects is Hendon Waterside, a 30-acre plot located in West Hendon, about half an hour outside Central London by train. The project anchors the regeneration of the West Hendon area, with Barratt London tasked with delivering more than 2,000 new homes, improvements to transport links as well as new community facilities and leisure spaces.
The redevelopment of the area has boosted property prices at Hendon Waterside, with Antoniazzi stating home prices there have grown by 132% between 2011 and 2022. “That’s nearly double the growth of property prices in London, which stood at 88% across the same period,” he adds.
More recently, the developer has embarked on a couple of redevelopment projects involving historical brownfield industrial sites. One of these is Hayes Village, located on the site of the old Nestlé factory where iconic food items such as Milky Bar and the world’s first instant coffee were invented.
Scale model for Hayes Village, a 1,500-unit Barratt London development on the site of the old Nestlé factory in Hayes (Picture: The Edge Singapore)
Following Nestlé’s relocation of its factory, the 30-acre 999-year leasehold site was acquired by UK property investment company Segro in 2015. Barratt London was elected as its partner to deliver 1,500 new homes on the site, in tandem with a new industrial park being developed by Segro with just under 240,000 sq ft of modern industrial space.
Another development is Eastman Village, located at the former Kodak factory in Harrow, about a 40-minute drive from Central London. Here, Barratt London is building over 2,000 new homes, in addition to retail and green spaces. The project feeds into the wider rejuvenation of Harrow, with a GBP600 million regeneration scheme currently being undertaken by the local council.
Partnership with Ikea
Buyers of units at Wembley Park Gardens will also benefit from the developer’s new collaboration with home furnishings retailer Ikea, which was unveiled in February. Through the partnership, buyers of any of Barratt London’s properties will have the option to add on one of three curated packs that include furniture, linens, window dressings, home accessories and kitchenware that will be used to furnish their home, with the packs priced between GBP6,000 and GBP12,000.
Each homebuyer will be given a one-hour remote planning session with an Ikea interior design specialist to help design and customise their new home. They also have the option to personalise their packs, such as exchanging items for other Ikea pieces not included in the pack or bringing in their own furniture.
Show unit an apartment at Hayes Village. The unit showcases one of the furniture packs provided by furnishing retailer Ikea as part of its collaboration with Barratt London (Picture: Barratt London)
Charlotte Markham, business leader at Ikea London, says the idea behind the collaboration was to make the process of moving into a new home as easy as possible for buyers. The packs have been designed to match the floor plans of each Barratt London home and include everything from beds and sofas to plates and cutlery. Installation of the furniture is also included, further easing the transition for owners. Markham shares that the packs incorporate Ikea’s best-selling products, reflecting the demands of homeowners and tenants. “We built these packs around the products that are already in high demand, for example, we know that 80% of people buy grey sofas so we made sure these were included as an option.”
Besides appealing to first-time homebuyers who may be searching for a cost-efficient option to furnish their homes, the option is also advantageous for investors, providing the means for a hassle-free and fast turnaround of their flat so it can be rented out.
Targeting Asian investors
In terms of London properties marketed in Singapore, there has been an overall decline in new projects this year versus last year, notes James Puddle, founder and CEO of One Global Group. As such, he views Wembley Park Gardens as a notable launch, given it is a brand new project as opposed to a new phase in an ongoing development. This, coupled with the market’s general familiarity with the Wembley area, bodes well for the project, which he anticipates will see a good response.
His optimistic outlook is underpinned by the fact London remains a favourite location among Singapore buyers, whether to invest in a property to rent out, purchase a place for their children to live in while studying, or diversify their assets. In addition, he points out that Barratt London has an established track record, delivering over 2,000 new homes across London annually.
The firm’s position as a large-scale developer also gives it an advantage, as its portfolio of projects provides a broad range of options for international buyers, says Stuart Leslie, Barrat London’s international sales and marketing director. It currently has 13 projects in London that are on the market. “We have a very strong portfolio and pipeline of high-volume developments in London that really sets us apart,” he notes.
In the last decade, Barratt has sharpened its strategy for the international market, forming a dedicated Barratt International sales team that coordinates its overseas marketing efforts. More recently, Leslie notes that the developer has started forming partnerships with a key agent in select countries to have a designated agency that would market its portfolio and represent the Barratt brand.
Last year, it announced the appointment of JLL as the sales and marketing agency for its portfolio in Hong Kong. Around the same time, One Global was appointed as Barratt London’s marketing partner for Singapore, with the agency potentially looking into the Malaysian and Thailand markets as well. “For Singapore, we felt that One Global had the best local presence and the best ability to access the Singapore investor market,” Leslie adds.
Apart from Wembley Park Gardens, One Global can facilitate Singapore buyers on purchases of any of Barratt London’s projects, allowing them to choose products that best suit their needs based on location, price point, size, or other factors.
According to Puddle, despite a slowdown in transaction activity compared to last year on the back of rising interest rates and global macroeconomic uncertainties, One Global has seen an increase in the number of inquiries received from Singapore buyers for London properties.
As fresh launches come to market this year, he expects the number of London property purchases by Singapore investors to pick up in the coming months, bolstered by the cooling measures that came into effect on April 27 which will encourage more Singapore property investors to look abroad. “As we get more clarity on where interest rates are going, I think we’ll see increased appetite, especially from September onwards,” he continues.
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