Supermarkets look to sell roof space for housing

Tesco and other supermarket groups are reportedly in discussions with property developer Apex Airspace about building homes on top of the flat roofs of their buildings.

Tesco store in Kennington is a likely candidate for rooftop housing
Above: Tesco store in Kennington is a likely candidate for rooftop housing

Apex Airspace specialises in buying the air rights above existing buildings and lifting factory-building modular housing units onto them.

The Sunday Telegraph quotes Tesco chief financial officer Alan Stewart hoping to generate £400m by developing housing on top of stores.

The plans would see some of its largest urban supermarkets becoming mini-Tesco villages, the report says. Tesco has identified 15 potential sites so far, mostly in London but one in Oxford.