A new £21 million housing development in Shrewsbury is bucking the national trend with sales proving strong despite falling house prices.

CALA Homes (Midlands) is building 112 new homes at Copthorne Grange, an area of eight acres of redundant hospital land which used to form part of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

And sales have got off to an encouraging start, with the purchase of three new homes in the first two weeks since its launch.

The first phase consists of two-bedroom apartments and three, four and five-bedroom houses, priced from £150,000 to £370,000, all of which feature CALA Homes’ Full Market Value Part Exchange Scheme.

Steve Rush, CALA Homes (Midlands) area sales and marketing director, said: “Our Part Exchange Scheme provides all purchasers with an immediate sale of their old property, with CALA acting as a chain-free, cash buyer, and a guaranteed move into a new home at Copthorne Grange with a minimum of fuss and hassle.

“In fact most purchasers at our developments across the Midlands make use of our Part Exchange Scheme to ensure that they can move in the present market.

“Using Part Exchange also means that there are no estate agents’ fees.”

Included in the first phase of development at Copthorne Grange are a range of four and five bedroom family homes.

In July it was revealed that street names at the development will include references to two British nurses in recognition of the site’s heritage as former hospital land.

It is set to include a Cavell Drive and Seacole Way in tribute to two of its most revered nurses.

Edith Cavell (1865-1915) helped some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, for which she was executed.

Mary Seacole (1805-1881) was a pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War, who as a woman of mixed race overcame a double prejudice.

CALA Homes is working in conjunction with The Homes and Communities Agency to develop the new homes on the site.