Great Places celebrates completion of 89 affordable homes at Dovecote House

Partners, stakeholders and customers joined Great Places to celebrate the completion of Dovecote House, a £29m development delivering 89 affordable homes and supporting the continued regeneration of Manchester’s Piccadilly East neighbourhood.

Great Places has celebrated the completion of Dovecote House, a new affordable housing development in Manchester city centre that is helping tackle housing demand by providing 89 high-quality homes. The £29m development on Pigeon Street in Piccadilly East brings together social rent and Rent to Buy homes, creating opportunities for people at different stages of their housing journey.

Partners, stakeholders and customers joined Great Places to mark the completion of the 10-storey scheme, including representatives from Manchester City Council, Homes England, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Eric Wright Construction, OMI Architects and Plumlife Homes. The development was built by Eric Wright Construction on behalf of Great Places and completed in June 2026.

Funded through Great Places’ Strategic Partnership with Homes England, alongside support from the GMCA’s Brownfield Housing Fund, Dovecote House reflects a shared commitment to increasing the supply of affordable homes in Manchester and supporting the ongoing regeneration of Piccadilly East. The development brings new homes, investment and long-term economic benefits to one of the city’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods, helping ensure local people can benefit from Manchester’s continued growth.

Dovecote House is already delivering benefits for local communities. All 31 social rent apartments have been allocated through Manchester Move, with each property attracting hundreds of bids. This highlights the significant demand for affordable housing in the city and the important role developments like Dovecote House play in helping people access a safe, secure and affordable home.

Great Places has also worked closely with Manchester City Council’s Housing Access Team to support existing social housing customers to move into homes that better suit their needs. By helping people right-size, the development is creating opportunities across the wider housing system and freeing up homes for other people and families waiting for affordable housing.

Alongside the social rent homes, Dovecote House offers 58 Rent to Buy apartments through Plumlife Homes. The scheme gives customers the opportunity to rent their home at 80% of the market rate for a minimum of five years, helping them save towards a deposit and take a step closer to home ownership.

The site has a long history dating back to the eighteenth century and was previously home to the Armitage Terracotta Works and showroom. In recognition of this history, a commemorative silver plaque set within salvaged terracotta blocks recovered from the site has been installed at the Brock Street entrance. Dovecote House sits alongside the neighbouring Grade II-listed Armitage Showroom, now known as Sligo House, bringing together the area’s industrial heritage with its future growth and regeneration.

Helen Spencer, our Executive Director of Growth, said:

We’re proud to celebrate the completion of Dovecote House and welcome customers into their new homes.

A safe, secure and affordable home can make a huge difference to people’s lives. This development will give more people the chance to live close to work, education and opportunities in the heart of Manchester.

We’re particularly pleased that the scheme provides a mix of social rent and Rent to Buy homes, helping people at different stages of their housing journey. Whether someone is looking for an affordable rented home or working towards home ownership, Dovecote House offers opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.

This is about more than building homes. It’s about creating opportunities, supporting communities and making sure Manchester remains a place where people from all backgrounds can live and thrive.

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration said:

The development is a special moment for city centre affordable housing – the first social rent homes inside the inner ring road for a generation. This is helping more Manchester people have more choice about where they live, while helping meet demand for genuinely affordable housing option in the centre of the city and moving us closer to achieving our ambitious target of building at least 10,000 affordable homes across the city through to 2032 – 3,000 of which will be in the city centre. And it’s the strong partnerships we have with housing providers like Great Places that are helping to deliver the homes Manchester people need.

Jeremy Hartley, Chief Executive of Eric Wright Group, said:

The completion of Dovecote House is a significant milestone for Eric Wright Construction and a testament to the strong partnership we have built with Great Places. Together, we share a commitment to delivering high-quality, affordable homes that create lasting benefits for the local Manchester community. While this was a technically complex project, in a highly constrained city centre location, the collaboration, innovation and dedication shown by everyone involved has delivered an outstanding development that we can all be proud of.