Project to create 900-plus homes on Edinburgh's waterfront takes 'significant step forward'

Work is due to start on a major housing development that will bring hundreds of homes to Edinburgh’s waterfront.

Developers of Leith’s Western Harbour said the project had taken a “significant step forward” with the news that CCG Group had committed to undertaking the first phase of the 938-home scheme.

A total of 118 homes for private sale are set to be delivered with construction starting this summer and completion phased over the first six months of 2024.

The homes will be a mix of one, two and three bedrooms, next to the Harbour Point & Gateway development by Forth Ports and Rettie & Co, completed in 2019, and will be released to the market by CCG’s own private housing company, CCG Homes.

The development is adjacent to the recently completed Victoria primary school and nursery and will benefit from the soon-to-be-completed tram terminal.

David Wylie, managing director of CCG Group, said: “The extent of regeneration in the district and the wider area of Granton is significant and we are playing a key role in its delivery with over 900 mixed-tenure homes set to be created to a low carbon or net zero standard over the next four years.

“The private housing arm of our group, CCG Homes, has very successfully sold over 200 homes in Glasgow and the west since 2019 so to be able to grow the company’s portfolio in the city of Edinburgh presents an exciting opportunity for CCG Homes and the wider group and I look forward to works commencing on-site this summer.”

Carole Cran, chief financial officer of landowner Forth Ports Group, said: “Today’s news marks an important next chapter in the development of Western Harbour and I am very pleased that CCG are bringing these much needed sustainably built homes to Leith.

David Wylie, managing director of CCG Group; Carole Cran, chief financial officer of Forth Ports; Matthew Benson, director of Rettie & Co, at the development site in Leith. Picture: Mark Craig

“In parallel the Port of Leith is transitioning to be Scotland’s premier renewables hub, with new green jobs and skills, as we re-industrialise this historic and important part of Scotland.”

Matthew Benson, director of Rettie & Co, added: “It’s fantastic news that a developer of the strength and calibre of CCG is coming to Western Harbour. The homes they will deliver can only add to the quality of what is already a sought-after location.”

Meanwhile, the first release of apartments at a new development in the centre of Musselburgh, to the east of the capital, will launch to market next month.

Dundas Estates is due to release the first phase of one, two and three-bedroom apartments at its 140-home Wireworks development on the banks of the River Esk.

Head of sales and marketing at Dundas Estates, Craig Fairfoull, said: “The Wireworks is one of our most exciting projects to date, regenerating a massive area of vacant land that was a real eye-sore on the local community into beautiful, high spec apartments to help quell demand in the area.

“Musselburgh has many positive attributes that has understandably led to it becoming a highly sought-after area to live.”

Dundas Estates, through a partnership with Tesco, East Lothian Council and NHS Lothian, acquired the site after receiving planning permission to regenerate the former Brunton Wireworks site and neighbouring land in 2008.