Codicote Garden Centre has been sold and will be replaced by housing, its new owner has revealed.

Wyevale Garden Centres put several of its facilities on the market – including the Codicote branch for £10million – which has now been bought by housebuilding company Taylor Wimpey.

The 5.86-acre site in High Street is expected to remain as a garden centre until early 2019 before being developed for housing.

A Taylor Wimpey spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have purchased Wyevale Garden Centre in Codicote.

“The site is allocated for housing in North Hertfordshire District Council’s draft Local Plan and we intend to deliver new homes to meet the proposed allocation.”

Although the guide price for the centre was £10million, the spokesperson said it was not bought for that figure, but declined to reveal the actual amount.

It comes as three other centres owned by the Wyevale in Sudbury, Oxford and Timperley were also sold.

Wyevale’s chief executive Roger Mclaughlan said: “In the case of those centres which have been sold for alternative use, we are very pleased to honour our commitments to our colleagues and partners and will seek to redeploy our excellent colleagues in our other garden centres wherever possible in coming months.”

Private equity firm Terra Firma, which owns Wyevale, appointed property advisors in May to sell its 145 branches either in bulk, groups, or individual investments.

Anthony Jones, chief financial officer of Wyevale, said: “The centres sold to date had been highlighted as ‘non-core’ as part of our ongoing portfolio review, which predated the sale process.

“The sale of these centres reflects our continued pursuit of positive outcomes for our colleagues, concession partners, suppliers and customers.

“We are very grateful for the dedication and commitment of the teams at these centres, and we’ll continue to support them through the transition.”

The company said it has now received a significant number of offers for all or part of its remaining business from national, regional and financial operators as well as local entrepreneurs.