Nine Elms flats developer becomes London's first to tempt buyers with £10,000 charity donation

Offer: diabetes charity JDRF will get £10,000 for any flat sold at Embassy Gardens up to June 25

A flats developer has become the first in London to tempt buyers with a charity donation rather than “goodies” such as a car or John Lewis vouchers.

For the next month EcoWorld Ballymore will give £10,000 to charity JDRF — which funds research into Type 1 diabetes — for every home sale at its Embassy Gardens scheme in Nine Elms.

One of the charity’s patrons is Theresa May, who has Type 1 diabetes.

EcoWorld Ballymore’s move marks a change of direction after a series of lavish inducements from property companies seeking to persuade buyers to invest.

It was revealed this month that one developer, Jamm, was offering a free Renault Zoe electric car, worth up to £26,000, for anyone buying a four-bedroom house at its scheme in Muswell Hill.

EcoWorld Ballymore launched its charity offer last night at a reception and Q&A event at Embassy Gardens — next to the new US embassy — hosted by Radio 4 Today programme presenter Justin Webb, whose teenage son has Type 1 diabetes. The £10,000 donations will be made on homes sold up to June 25. Next week will see the launch of about 25 one- and two-bed apartments overlooking a sky pool at Embassy Gardens, where one-bed flats start at £825,000.

Since September 2015, about 470 homes have gone on the market in the second phase of the development.

Sales in Nine Elms and other areas where large numbers of flats are being built have slowed due to uncertainty triggered by last year’s Brexit referendum and higher levels of stamp duty.

Jubie Wigan, who founded the Sugarplum Children charity linked to JDRF and whose seven-year-old daughter Aliena has Type 1 diabetes, said the EcoWorld Ballymore donations would go towards the £1.2 million she hopes to raise for a research project into an artificial pancreas. “Now we need people to buy lots of apartments and raise lots of money for us,” she said. “It could be huge. Obviously people are either going to buy an apartment, or they are not. But I do think it’s a great story, it’s very personal and people can relate to it.”

​EcoWorld Ballymore sales director Jenny Steen said: “Health and wellbeing is really important to EcoWorld Ballymore and we hope we are able to make a make a significant contribution to the research into this condition.”

However, buying agent Henry Pryor said: “It’s just absurd. Are people really going to kid themselves that they are not just going to be paying for it over 25 years? It would be so much better for them to give the money direct to the charity and claim the gift aid.”

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