An affordable housing development of 12 detached and semi-detached houses could be built on a piece of vacant land above Whiting Bay if planning permission is granted by the North Ayrshire Council planning department.
The development, which will be based on a shared equity scheme that will see the new owners owning around 60 per cent of the property and a trust owning the remainder, could be built on the site owned by the applicant, which is situated to the south of Golf Course Road.
The applicant is named as Mr A and Mrs S Macleod of Creag Dhubh, Whiting Bay, who will enlist the help of solicitor Stephen MacGregor in creating the trust. Mr Macgregor advised the Scottish Government on this type of scheme in the early 2000s. The trust to be set up by the applicant will administer the sale of the shared ownership properties which are aimed at working families and couples who are struggling to find affordable houses on Arran.
The projected market value of the houses will be between £200,000 and £250,000, thus 60 per cent would be between £120,000 and £150,000, which the application says would allow working families on the island to secure a mortgage and get themselves into the housing market. The buyers would be obliged to sell the properties back to the trust to prevent them becoming holiday homes.
To create a courtyard feel, the houses will be laid out around a central amenity space and will feature a small front and rear garden. It is proposed that one of the 12 properties will be of a bespoke design where the developer will live and that the sale of the phased units will fund the development of further units.