The £50m building project will bring 589 new homes to the 4.7 hectare site in the heart of Lewisham under a deal reached between the London Mayor and developer Barratt London.

Work is expected to begin early next year, with the scheme fully completed by 2017.

The publicly-owned stadium was released by the Greater London Authority as part of a drive to unlock development on public sector land to increase housing supply.

It is among the first tranche of sites released since GLA became one of the capital’s largest public land owners last year.

Hyde Housing Association and Countryside Properties gained permission for the redevelopment in 2009, but the scheme was shelved. The revived project should be complete at the end of 2017.

Mayor Boris Johnson, said: “The transformation of Catford Dogs, which for the last decade has been left empty and unused, will not only bring hundreds of new homes to the heart of London, but will feed into the wider regeneration of Catford Town Centre.”

Alastair Baird, Barratt London Regional Managing Director, added: “This is the fifth site we have secured in the capital in the last six months, bringing a total of 1,800 new homes to London.

“The site at Catford will add to our already significant presence in the Borough of Lewisham, with our redevelopment of the town centre – Renaissance – which will provide a total of 788 new homes together with a new leisure centre due to open shortly.”

Lewisham Council has outlined several other redevelopment opportunities including the redevelopment of Catford Shopping Centre and plans to work with TfL to improve the transport network in the town centre.

Barratt London is among the 25 developers to have gained a place on the Mayor’s brand new land procurement group, the London Development Panel.

The Panel will accelerate the delivery of housing in London by making it faster, easier and cheaper for public land owners to bring forward land for development.