Work on 84 new homes on the western edge of Carmarthen is due to start early next year, with the first ready by the end of 2027.
The estate, on the field beside the Ffordd Pendre link road off the A40, now has a name: Dôl y Castell.
Carmarthenshire Council owns the land. It has now signed an agreement with housebuilder Lovell to build there.
Half of the 84 will be affordable: 25 for social rent and 17 for low-cost home ownership. The other 42 will be sold on the open market.
When the Dôl y Castell homes will be ready
The homes for sale come first, with Lovell expecting them to be available at the end of 2027.
The first affordable homes are due to follow in spring 2028, and the whole estate should be finished in 2029, the firm says.
There will be one, two, three and four-bedroom homes across the 3.6-hectare site.
Around a hectare of that is set aside for open space, footpaths, planting and play areas, according to the council. An artist’s impression shows a play area with a slide and swings, picnic benches and tree-lined paths among the houses.
‘Meet the needs of local families’
Cllr Emlyn Schiavone, the council’s cabinet member for homes, said the homes “will help meet the needs of local individuals and families in the Carmarthen area”.
He said the plans put “strong emphasis on creating a high-quality and sustainable neighbourhood”.
Anthony Vagges, Lovell’s regional managing director, said the aim was “to create a thriving new community that enhances the natural environment and promotes sustainable living”. He called winning the work “a huge milestone” for the firm in Wales.
Half affordable, where other builders were asked for 12%
Councillors approved the plans in August. Planning officers told them the 50% affordable share was far higher than the 12% allowed for other developers at Carmarthen West.
What else is going up around Dôl y Castell
Carmarthen West is the council’s main growth site for the town, and is meant to end up with 1,100 homes, a primary school and a row of shops.
Dôl y Castell sits across the trees from Maes Pedr, one of three estates at the A40 end that the council’s planning report in August listed as finished, along with Maes Elen and Maes Magsen. A fourth, Maes y Teirw, was described as nearing completion.
At the other end of the link road, by the old St David’s Hospital, Persimmon won permission for 93 homes in 2023, 11 of them affordable.
The same firm applied in 2024 for 123 more on neighbouring land at Pentremeurig Farm, which has outline permission for 250 homes in all.
The council’s report described Dôl y Castell as the first of the fields west of the link road to come forward, with more land to the north and west earmarked for later phases.
Still to come: the school, and an answer on the sewers
The school has yet to follow the houses. Lovell is to pay £458,178 towards it and the link road, though the August meeting heard nobody had yet applied to build it.
Welsh Water objected at the time over capacity at the Parc y Splott treatment works. The council’s answer was to take rainwater out of the sewer at a school playground elsewhere in town, and the permission depended on Natural Resources Wales accepting that.
Whether that has been signed off has not been announced.
The same works would take the 38 social rent homes the council wants to build behind Carmarthen Leisure Centre, where neighbours have objected.
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