Dickinson Dees scoops Ikea homes contract

NEWCASTLE-BASED Dickinson Dees has won the mandate to sell the first-ever Ikea homes.

The Swedish furniture giant is building approximately 120 affordable homes on its first site at St James Village, Gateshead, and is preparing to allocate the first 60 properties in the coming weeks.

Known as BoKloks, Swedish for 'live smart', the sustainably-sourced, low-energy houses are priced between £100,000 and £150,000, while some of the units have shared ownership packages to further increase their affordability.

Targeted at first-time buyers earning less than £35,000, property company Live Smart @ Home has been licensed to build the BoKlok properties in the UK .

Dickinson Dees won the Live Smart mandate from parent company Home Group, which has been a Dickinson Dees client for 40 years.

Dickinson Dees head of housing investment, partner Mitch Brown, said: "This product will look strikingly different from what's on the market elsewhere, but if the Government is going to hit its target of 240,000 new homes a year from 180,000 a year currently, something has got to change."

Live Smart's in-house legal team acquired the St James Village site led by Home Group head of legal David Hayward.

Live Smart plans to produce 500 BoKloks a year nationwide by 2009, and is talking to local authorities, developers and regeneration bodies about setting up other sites.

"We're unashamedly looking for more work of this kind in the future," Brown added.