Scheme bucks seasonal property downturn
The end of the year is typically a quiet time of year for estate agents and housing developers, however despite this trend and the exceptionally adverse weather conditions, Kent based house builder, Pentland Homes, saw a late surge in sales towards the end of 2010.
It reports that 11 properties were reserved over five weeks in November and December and believes that being a small and privately owned house builder has helped it to buck the seasonal trend.
‘We have experienced a consistent level of sales throughout 2010 and we believe that this is thanks to our strong local reputation for good value for money and high quality homes. Throughout the recession, our prices and levels of enquiries have remained stable and we have endeavoured to provide affordable yet contemporary, high specification homes, and go that extra mile to help make moving as stress free as possible,’ said Janet Burnell, sales and marketing director at Pentland Homes.
‘In recent years, East Kent has benefited from various regeneration projects and, predominantly, the high speed rail link to London, which has helped house prices to bounce back to a similar level to 18 months ago,’ she added.
One buyer who moved into a Pentland Homes property in November was Richard Mills, a 26-year-old dental sales representative and his partner, Giovanni. Richard and Giovanni took advantage of Pentland Homes’ Early Bird Scheme, which helps buyers to sell their current home. The couple paid a small deposit to reserve their new home and Pentland Homes took care of the sale of their old house.
‘We were initially attracted to the Pentland Homes development because of the prices but after looking around, we saw the extremely high quality of the build and this expelled any misconceptions that we had about new build homes,’ said Mills.
‘We decided that we wanted to buy a house at the Bayeuxfields development in Hawkinge, but were having trouble selling our existing house. Marilyn, a sales manager at Pentland Homes, suggested the Early Bird Scheme to us and it was the answer to our prayers. Pentland Homes arranged the sale of our old house and we moved into our new house. All of the stress of selling our old house was completely taken care of and we avoided estate agent fees,’ he explained.
‘We couldn’t be happier in our new home; it is bigger, better and finished to a much higher standard than our old house. The service provided by Pentland Homes was fantastic and we cannot fault it,’ he added.
Prices of the two bedroom homes at Bayeuxfields start from £163,000.