Aspiring homeowners will soon have the option to buy a house from Ikea - as part of the retail giant's plans to tackle Britain's property crisis.
Worthing Council has teamed up with the flat-pack furniture chain's affordable housing developer Boklok, to bring 43 new properties to the area.
BoKlok, which is jointly owned by the Swedish retailer and construction firm Skanska, specialises in factory-built homes that can be constructed at a low cost.
The group, whose name is Swedish for "live smart", has built more than 11,000 homes throughout Sweden, Finland and Norway. It now wants to help fix Worthing's housing problem.
It said the land could be used for 45 homes with 13 of them available for affordable rent.
These would operate under BoKlok's "Left to Live" payment model, where residents are charged only what they can afford after taxes and living expenses.
Payments — typically around a third of net monthly earnings — go toward a 25-year mortgage.
Its website explains "a single parent can afford to buy and live in a newly built two-bedroom BoKlok apartment".
The company said it “scrutinised our costs and trimmed them to the bone", but that there were no compromises on quality.
Flooring and wall tiles are included in the price, and homes are fitted with an Ikea kitchen.
The show-homes reveal properties that range from one-bedroom apartments measuring 50 sq metres (538sq ft) to three-bedroom apartments of 74 sq metres (800sq ft).
If the plans go ahead work on the site will begin in September 2020, with the first homes would be delivered and assembled the following January, and ready to move into in April 2021.
Further homes may follow, with the council and BoKlok agreeing a programme to provide 500 homes in the borough.
A property in Worthing, which has more than 1,300 households on its housing waiting list, currently costs more than 11 times average wages according to ONS figures.
Councillor Kevin Jenkins, Worthing borough council’s executive member for regeneration, said: “In this current market it’s extremely tough for local people who are in full-time work to get on the housing market.
“This proposal could change that, giving these hard-working individuals a genuine chance to buy their own home without having to move out of the town.”
