South Ayrshire to benefit from social modular housing development

Irvine Housing Association has joined forces with The Wee House Company to develop a social housing scheme in Dundonald. The £9.8million project will deliver extra homes for social housing by Autumn 2022. Work begins this month on the site at Kilmarnock Road, Dundonald.  

The investment – which includes Scottish Government funding of £4.7million - begins with the delivery of 63 brand new affordable homes, the first phase of a 250-strong property development located at the site. The first affordable homes will be made available to Irvine Housing Association customers before the end of the year.  

The development will see a blend of house types, including one-bedroom flats, three-bedroom houses and two-bedroom amenity bungalows.  

The project is Irvine Housing Association’s first development in South Ayrshire. It will add to its existing portfolio of 2,000 homes across North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.  

The Wee House Company, specialists in modular construction, will design and fabricate all houses in their Ayrshire factory. Houses will be 90% complete when they depart the factory with kitchens, bathrooms, plumbing, and electrics installed, facilitating a significantly shorter build programme and earlier occupancy. The Wee House Company said: “fabrication under factory conditions diminishes waste, improves quality, negates the impacts of adverse weather and allows for overlap of site preparation and build phases.”  

The Wee House Company’s Managing Director Jennifer Higgins commented: “We’re thrilled to be working with Irvine Housing Association to create such an innovative housing development. The use of modular construction improves build quality and means homes will be available for occupancy earlier.  

“Irvine Housing’s willingness to embrace this evolution in construction has been key to the scale of the project. We are delighted that they have partnered with us, a Scottish manufacturer, to provide Scotland’s largest modular affordable housing development.   

Paul Hillard, Managing Director at Irvine Housing Association said: “This is a really exciting development for us – our first in South Ayrshire and our first modular housing project - and we’re delighted to be partnering with the Wee House Company to deliver these much-needed, innovative and greener new homes for our tenants.  

“We believe it’s important to keep delivering greater capacity to meet social housing demands across Ayrshire, through projects like this that offer good value for our customers and can be delivered efficiently while keeping the standard of homes very high. We look forward to welcoming customers into their new homes.”   

South Ayrshire Council’s Housing and Community Wellbeing Portfolio Holder Councillor Philip Saxton said: “This is fantastic news for Dundonald and South Ayrshire, as we look to expand affordable housing.  

“We will be able to allocate all 63 of these homes to people on our housing waiting list. I look forward to the start of the works.”  

Irvine Housing Association has been part of the Riverside Group since 2011. The business benefits from the Group’s expertise and financial and business strength to deliver new-build developments and continued investment in existing homes which are essential to ensuring a good standard of living accommodation for all customers.