PROJECT REPORT: BUILD TO RENT 39


says Tollast. He says they “changed the parameters slightly,” principally around the volumetric aspects and followed up the Section 73 with a reserved matters application.


DESIGN Tollast says that with a multi-building site “you’re not allowed to have favourite children,” but that Repton Gardens “is the epitome of all the best lessons we have learned from the previous buildings.” He adds “because there were so many buildings finishing so close to each other from 2019 through to 2022, you couldn’t necessarily change what was onsite.” Michael Fitzgerald, project director at Quintain agrees, saying that as the operator as well as developer, the Quintain team learned a lot from the design, build and operation of the previous nine BTR developments at Wembley Park and this fed into the BTR brief for Repton Gardens. “You’re watching the cost of any defects, and you end up checking and checking again, and we had the lessons learned for Repton Gardens, whereas because of the speed of progress, we were learning at the same time as the others.” Tollast says that the business has learned that there’s a misconception about BTR, that it’s a short-term endeavour from the developer’s point of view, with an attendant lack of quality. However, he says that “what’s interesting from the design and placemaking point of the view is that it’s had almost completely the opposite effect; with the rental


market you have to make sure that the dwellings, social spaces, amenity and public realm are the best-in-class, because somebody can say ‘okay we’ll go and rent somewhere else.’” Tollast adds: “With the for sale market you could cynically say that as long as you did enough for the person to put their deposit down, you’ve kind of done the job.”


Here, by contrast, Tollast says that a quarter of the 85-acre site is “publicly accessible open space at ground floor level, and if you look at Wembley Park from a satellite image when it’s finished, “you’d see that a further quarter of it was rooftop gardens and terraces.” He says that this shows that despite the feverish London market, this is not an “exceptionally dense” development, accommodating around 100 dwellings per acre.


Cherry House is where the main entrance to Repton Gardens is located plus  worfromhome offices and a meeting room on the first floor  the largest work from home provision yet for Quintain Living residents at Wembley Park. Other amenities include a club room, TV area and bar, and a 1,150 ft2 gym overlooking the podium garden. The latter has four covered, hireable BBQ areas, two play areas and


a lawn. Cherry House and Birch House also feature roof terraces, including paved areas, artificial grass, sun loungers and seating. Tollast explains that the main concierge entrance to the development, which leads


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