Flats in Paternoster House, overlooking the junction of Fore Street and North Street in Exeter city centre, are being marketed for rent at rates up to nearly £3,500 per month.
The city council granted planning permission to convert and extend the building, which was completed in 1884 and originally housed Wheaton’s booksellers and a furniture store, in April 2017.
A Copenhagen-based developer was to combine the ground floor and basement for commercial use and lay out 28 flats across its five upper floors, the top two which were to be extended. Works did not commence.
Two years later Grenadier Paternoster Limited, a subsidiary of Oxygen House, the company behind Exeter City Futures, applied for renewed permission to reduce the number of flats to 24, saying the building would be “transformed into a new tech hub that will provide innovative local businesses with a place to thrive”.
The council granted permission for this scheme in March 2020 but works still did not start.
A fortnight before planning consent was to expire, in March last year, the company again sought renewed permission to convert the building, reverting to 28 flats and adding a roof terrace.
Paternoster House before redevelopment began
The council granted planning consent four months later and works were under way by September last year.
London-based Nooko Developments Limited, which describes itself as a “visionary property development company” announced the renovated flats would be aimed at young professionals “wanting an elegant, cosmopolitan New York loft-style apartment”.
It is currently marketing ten of the 28 planned apartments, all of which it says will be completed by January. Four have been finished so far.
It describes one as a “vast HMO”, suggesting that it may intend student occupation of its four bedrooms. The rent is set at £3,466 per month.
Another, a three-bed top floor flat, described as “an idyllic city retreat for families” is available for £3,033 per month, although the company says it would also welcome sharers.
A fourth floor two-bed show flat which “represents the epitome of opulence” is on offer at £2,600 per month. Another two-bed show flat on the third floor can be reserved at £2,383 per month.
The company says that the Paternoster House renovation “represents more than just the transformation of a single building”, it is a “blueprint for Exeter’s future”.
Paternoster House 77m2 two-bedroom fourth floor show flat plan. Image: Nooko Developments Limited.
The standard financial eligibility threshold, below which agents will not normally consider letting to tenants, is an annual income of at least two and a half times the rent.
The minimum earnings required to rent each of the four Paternoster House flats that have so far been completed would therefore range from £71,500 to £104,000 per annum.
According to the Office for National Statistics, median full-time annual gross earnings in Exeter workplaces were £33,600 last year, while the top 20% earned £45,200.
There are too few jobs in the city that pay more than this for reliable earnings statistics for the top 10%, but across Devon the people in this bracket earned £52,400.
The council did not require an “affordable housing” contribution from the Paternoster House renovation.
