Buyers rush to register for 800 new flats at Shell Centre on the South Bank

 
Buying frenzy: developers hope the Shell Centre development on the South Bank, right, will be as popular as the Maine Tower in Canary Wharf

Buyers began registering for flats at the Shell Centre building on the South Bank today weeks after the £1.3 billion development cleared its final legal hurdle following a four-year battle.

More than 800 homes are due to be built at the 5.25-acre riverside site where seven new blocks are being constructed around the 27-storey former oil multi-national headquarters.

British-based buyers were able to register their interest in the scheme, jointly owned by Docklands office group Canary Wharf and Gulf developer Qatari Diar. It is Canary Wharf’s first residential project outside Docklands.

The apartments for sale at the Shell Centre have not yet been priced and will not formally go on sale until September. Of the 868 homes in the development 160 are classified as “affordable” and include 52 extra care flats for the elderly and disabled.

The scheme, officially known as Southbank Place, will also include 530,000 sq ft of office space and 48,000 sq ft of shops, restaurants and cafés. The development is expected to be completed by 2019.

The start of work on-site follows one of the longest planning wrangles in recent London history as critic George Turner — backed by local residents, Westminster council, Historic England and the Twentieth Century Society — held up the project with a succession of failed legal challenges. When a deadline passed earlier this month for an appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling, Mr Turner’s campaign effectively ended.

Canary Wharf Group chairman and chief executive Sir George Iacobescu said: “We are confident that this scheme will be a world-class addition to a culturally vibrant area of London.” Khaled Al Sayed, chief executive of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, said: “Southbank Place is a true celebration of the South Bank’s heritage.”

The start of registration comes after a buying frenzy at the launch of the Maine Tower in Canary Wharf on July 9, when 3,000 people registered to buy 345 luxury flats worth £140 million.

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