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’SOMEBODY MAYNOT LIKE ME,BUT THEY’LL LIKETHIS HOUSE’

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£2m and £50m, but the plans include123 designated affordable homes.When it comes to the capital’s best

addresses, however, you can’t get muchmore prestigious than 20 GrosvenorSquare. The US navy’s former LondonHQ has been lying derelict since 2007,but is being transformed by the luxurydeveloper Finchatton into 36 apartments,with prices starting at £4m for aone-bedder and reaching more than£35m for a five-bedroom flat. Thisdevelopment, also due for completionin 2018, will include a pool, a gym, acinema, a personal screening room anda car lift to its subterranean parking.Apart from the size and shape of the

building lending itself particularly wellto high-end residential conversion —

From the most prestigious newaddresses in the capital to thedevelopments transforming run-downtowns around the country, the greatMinistry of Defence property sell-off iskick-starting a wave of residentialschemes steeped in military history.Defence Estates has a property

portfolio that represents 1% of the UK’slandmass, making it one of the biggestlandowners in the country. Since 2011,however, it has been disposing of landwith the capacity for tens of thousandsof new homes.Whether it is affordable family houses

on decommissioned provincial armybases or the once-in-a-lifetime releaseof some of London’s most sought-afterbuildings, the MoD has many sites thatcould make a significant contribution toour housing needs — and create uniquehomes to boot. The highest-profile site

The MoD has sold many of its grandest buildings todevelopers, including Eisenhower’s wartime base, whereflats will start at £4m. Emily Wright takes a roll call

to come onto the market is 20 GrosvenorSquare, in Mayfair, where Eisenhowerfamously established a military HQduring the Second World War. Flatsthere are set to start at £4m, with pricesrising to more than £35m.MoD figures released in July revealed

that there are 81,700 full-timeservicemen and women in the Army —down from 102,260 in 2010. RAFnumbers have fallen by more than8,500 over the same period, while theRoyal Navy has cut 5,500 posts. Aspersonnel numbers have shrunk,barracks and bases across DefenceEstates’ 900 sq mile portfolio of landholdings have been left empty — and insome cases ripe for redevelopment.Yet while the MoD is sitting on a huge

estate — a fair chunk of which has alreadybeen sold off, with more expected to goas part of George Osborne’s anticipated£20bn worth of public-sector cuts —not all of it is suitable for residentialredevelopment. Sprawling army basesare often deliberately placed in remotelocations, to ensure there is enoughspace around them for training and tominimise the impact of noise onneighbouring communities.“The MoD’s surplus land portfolio is

vast,” says Adam Challis, head ofresidential research at the propertyagency JLL. “But within it there is ahuge range from prime central sites tomore rural locations. The latter willrequire significant infrastructure beforethey can be turned into homes.”For this reason, the biggest residential

wins are likely to be at either end of apretty broad spectrum. On the onehand, there will be unique developmentsin cities — particularly London — thatwill lend themselves to luxury flats,thanks to their desirable locations andimpressive buildings. On the other,there are the rural bases with good

infrastructure connections. These arethe projects that could deliver cheaperhomes on a grand scale, and perhapsbreathe life into neighbouring provincialtown centres, especially those that havesuffered economically after the Armymoved out.First up, the trophy sites. The sell-off

has launched some of the most excitingprojects in London. The Old War Office at57 Whitehall, for example, was sold tothe Hinduja Group for £300m last yearand is due to be turned into 580,000 sq ftof luxury apartments. And, though it hasseen its fair share of controversy, the£3bn Chelsea Barracks scheme willeventually deliver 448 new homes. Thefirst 74 flats, scheduled for completionby 2018, are expected to cost between

Corridors of powerThe Old War Office,on Whitehall, is only200yd from DowningStreet. After beingsold for £300m, it isto be turned into flats

Wellesley is a development of 3,850 homeson former army land in Aldershot, Hampshire

StandingStandingto attentionto attention

18 . 10 . 2015 / 43

“The other thing about theseold buildings — whether it isthis one or the Old War Office —

is that they are extremelylarge, in great locations,

and a bit unloved,so they are ripefor regeneration.“The nature

of war haschanged.Technologymeans thatwe don’t needas many staffany more,so we have theopportunityto bring

its 20,000 sq ft floorplates will allow5,000 sq ft flats to stretch out on a singlelevel — it has the cachet of generationsof military history.“It is once in hundreds of years that a

building like this comes up,” says AlexMichelin, co-founder of Finchatton. “Itoffers a layout that reflects how we thinkfamilies of the future will want to live —horizontally across one level, rather thanover six floors in a thin townhouse —and it is where Eisenhower wasbased during the war. The historyis phenomenal. Think of thephone calls that happenedhere. We are discussing thepossibility of calling one of theapartments the EisenhowerSuite in his honour.

of Aldershot Garrison. This scheme willinclude two primary schools, 110 hectaresof green space and the refurbishment ofsix listed buildings.There will also be 3,850 new homes —

35% of which will be affordable — by2027. Of these, 228 are due for completionby 2018, with prices starting at £425,000(01252 916886, bellway.co.uk).“The MoD is a great example of a

public body having a large amount ofland that is underused,” says KurtMueller, Grainger’s director of corporateaffairs. “A few years ago, it went to theTreasury to prove it was getting ‘bestvalue’ from its sites. By that, I meanshort-term, hard-cash returns.“This has changed. Our past two

housing ministers have been much betterat helping the government understandlong-term value — for example, tacklingthe housing shortage by planning thesesorts of developments. It’s a slower butarguably even more valuable return.”There are more benefits to creating

homes on these otherwise empty sitesthan simply helping to ease the housingcrisis. “These schemes can be hugelybeneficial to the local community,”Mueller says. “One of our main aimsis to integrate Aldershot into theWellesley scheme. We want it to beaspirational but attainable — and therewill be a clear nod to its military history.The parade ground running throughthe middle of the development will beturned into a walkway with a bandstand.It’s a perfect example of how we canmake the most of the surplus land whilehonouring these sites’ pasts.”As the MoD continues to dispose of its

holdings, opportunities for residentialdevelopment will only increase — andnot only in the short term. With schemesas big and bold as Wellesley promising todeliver thousands of homes in the nexttwo decades, the long-term prospectsalso look good.Because suitable sites require

particularly careful selection, the greatMinistry of Defence sell-off might notresult in the creation of those 37,000homes overnight. When it comes tocreating a wave of new residentialschemes steeped in history, however,it looks as if this will be delivered withmilitary precision.

these amazing, powerful buildings backinto use.”The MoD sell-off is by no means

limited to the capital. The sale of basesand barracks up and down the countrysince 2011 has released land that could,in theory, provide space for 37,000homes. This space, in some cases, isalready being redeveloped to createentire communities.In Suffolk, a former naval training

college, HMS Ganges, has been acquiredby Galliard Homes, which has plans todevelop 285 properties, a nursing home,a hotel, a shopping centre and a museumon the site. And in Hampshire, thehousebuilder Grainger is overseeingthe development of Wellesley, a 630-acresite that was formerly the South Camp

Dwight Eisenhower,below, had hiswartime HQ at 20Grosvenor Square,above. It is now beingturned into 36 flats,in a style similarto the Finchattonproject pictured right(020 7349 1120,finchatton.com)

World Travel/Alamy; Fox/Hulton/Getty