15 - 16 Hampshire Terrace, by G5 Student

The Property

We found this project after being referred to the owner by mutual friends. We experienced a very long and difficult negotiation with the owner of the property and from initial contact to actually completing on the property was about two years! Our offer, as always was subject to planning but after finally agreeing terms of sale we got a successful planning consent in 4 months.

State at Purchase

The property was in decent condition, and was structurally sound but again it required a complete strip out and there wasn’t enough ceiling height on the top floor so we had to remove the roof, build up the height of the building and replace with a brand new roof –this was already in the plans.

Works Completed

We turned this one into a 22-student room development from ground floor up to third floor, and the basement is a luxury student studio on one side of the basement and the other side of the basement will provide office space for our business. It was originally 2 very large adjoining houses, so we’ve tried to recreate that theme and designed it so that each side of the building has its own communal areas, communal kitchen, washing facilities etc. All the rooms are fully ensuite based on the same design principles as St. Michael’s. This was a much larger job than St. Michaels because there was twice the built up area and it obviously entailed replacing the entire roof. The rooms have got unbelievable views of Portsmouth, they look out to an incredible sunset and views of the Spinnaker Tower, a local landmark. This building was taken under a 15-year head-lease by the local language college.

Problems

The build of this project has been relatively straightforward – on timeline and just over budget, which can be expected with a complete renovation. Our issue on this project was the negotiation of the purchase and the delays in getting to completion. It was 2 years of hard negotiation and was a considerable stress for the family but we saw the value in it and persisted and it paid off.

Timescales

We achieved planning in 4 months and from build commencement to handover was a further 8 months.

Luxury student accommodation, Portsmouth