Planning consent has been granted for 85 homes at the Oxgangs site – ravaged by fire more than a decade ago – and will be delivered by Hopefield Partnership and CCG Construction.

It is one of the first developments delivered as part of a housing investment fund set up last year by the Scottish Government and Places for People Group, which includes PfP Capital. Its aim is to provide around 1,000 mid-market rent homes across the country. The other is a 66-home development in Paisley.

Law firm Shoosmiths guided its client PfP Capital through the site’s purchase and development.

The company’s real estate team was led by partner Janette Speed, with support from senior associate Gillian Ralph, as well as construction senior associate Stephanie Macpherson.

Janette, who is also head of Shoosmiths office in Edinburgh, said: “This is an exciting development for the city and will bring a number of much-needed affordable homes into the area, not to mention bringing back into use a piece of land that has been left empty for some time. It has been a pleasure working with the team at PfP Capital’s fund management team and we are looking forward to both seeing how the development will look, and to working with them in the future.”

PfP Capital fund director, William Kyle, added: “The team at Shoosmiths has been instrumental in helping push this development forward.

“We are incredibly proud to be embarking on our first development in Edinburgh, to deliver what will be an affordable housing project the city needs.”

Oxgangs is a brownfield site which has been left empty and unused since the summer of 2007 when pupils from Hunters Tryst moved to Comiston, now Pentland Primary.