Bad weather and construction problems have set back an ambitious Angus council housing scheme by months.
The 18 townhouses are being created on the site of former flats at Newmonthill, which lay empty for several years before being cleared in the summer of 2012.
The start to the £3 million-plus project, which has received £500,000 of Scottish Government support, was then delayed, but despite the hold-up council officials had hoped to see the first tenants in their new homes by the end of 2013.
The steeply sloping nature of the site had presented a challenge for architects and it has emerged that part of the delay has been caused by problems associated with the original intention of using the existing foundations of the bulldozed blocks.
A council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately there has been a delay on the construction at the site.
“There have been a variety of unforeseeable factors that have contributed to the delay, including poor weather in February and March 2013 and the discovery that we were unable to use the existing substructure and drainage, which only became apparent once the excavations had been completed. Work is now anticipated to be complete by the start of May 2014.”