Developer Olympian Homes has received the green light to build its first co-living scheme, a 46-storey tower at Marsh Wall, Canary Wharf, under its Vivus Living brand.
A CGI of Olympian Homes’ Vivus Living co-living building planned for Canary Wharf
Olympian is raising £280m in debt and equity to develop the building, which it claims will be the tallest co-living scheme to gain gateway 2 consent and will house 833 studios.
The plans feature hotel-style facilities such as a 24-hour concierge, room service, a commercial-sized gym, a spa, treatment areas and function rooms.
The group is seeking investment tranches of between £30m and £100m to fund the project, which involves demolition starting next month, construction beginning in the third quarter of 2026 and completion by the end of 2030.
Olympian, which declined to say how much it had paid to acquire the site, said it had identified a number of suitable sites to grow a £2bn pipeline of development with 3,500 units under the Vivus brand, starting in London before rolling out in other cities in the UK and then overseas.
The 56 Marsh Wall development is Olympian’s first co-living scheme, but it already has 1.8m sq ft of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and build-to-rent (BTR) development under construction over six sites.
Mark Slatter, chairman and founder of Olympian, said: “This milestone is the culmination of five years’ hard work on the planning and the gateway 2 process. It has not been easy, but the BSR [Building Safety Regulator] regime is improving all the time.
“In my 33 years in the business, this scheme, and the Vivus brand, is by far the most exciting project I have been involved with and we look forward to finding the right equity partners in this still very challenging market to deliver this much-needed affordable alternative to BTR.”
Savills is agent for the scheme.
