Offer accepted on former council flats block

A buyer has been found for a block of former social housing flats in the centre of the Isle of Man's capital that date back to the 1930s, the local authority has confirmed.

Douglas Council said it had accepted an offer after putting the 56-unit Lord Street development up for sale in November, subject to contracts being agreed.

The sale figure for the development, which has been boarded up in 2022 after the tenants moved to a more modern building on Peel Road, has not yet been revealed.

A council spokesman said the proceeds would be "reinvested into future housing projects for Douglas" alongside its general maintenance and refurbishment works.

The sale was part of a programme to "invest in providing accommodation considered more suitable to modern day standards", he said.

The details of the deal were currently commercially sensitive and the authority would release more information once the sale had been completed, he added.

When the flats were put on the market housing committee chairman Devon Watson stressed that the Council wanted to see the Lord Street site remain as housing.

He said the authority believed there was "more mileage" by using funds from the sale fund the construction of new modern homes on a different site than redeveloping the current one.

He said a developer could build 50 new homes for private market on the former local authority housing site.

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