Two beautiful sustainable rented homes have been handed over to White Horse by builder Gaiger Homes at its Townsend Farmyard development in Poulshot, with two more for shared ownership to follow shortly.
White Horse board members and staff were at the 14-home site – Gaiger’s first estate development – to tour the three-bed and two-bed homes for rental and see the progress on the three-bed and two-bed for shared ownership that are now ready for their new occupants.
All of the EPC A-rated homes will be energy efficient, with Air Source Heat Pumps and PV arrays – solar panels – and electric vehicle charging points to help reduce bills. One of the most striking features is the enormous 2.03 by 6.765 metre sheds in the back garden, which have also been fitted with PV panels.
With spacious, light-filled kitchens and living rooms, wide stairways and airy bedrooms, the modern homes are bursting with character thanks to their red brick or Monocouche render and natural slate roofs.
Board Chair David Trewethey said he had been stunned by the quality of the homes as he wandered around them in the sunshine. “When Steve Warran our Chief Executive spoke to us about the development and the opportunity, and about his impression of Gaiger themselves, there was a sense that we could expect quality,” he said.
“But to be honest I am literally blown away by the beauty of this. It's such a fabulous space, it's so well designed and the amount of space that’s offered for the families here is just incredible.
“If anybody hadn’t visited any of our recent schemes before and came here, they would just not be able to credit that this is a housing association property. The scheme is top quality, high end.”
He said the development is a testament to the ethos of the board to invest in quality homes. “There are no kind of corners cut just because this is affordable housing for people in need,” he said. “This is amazing, exceptional quality housing for people to live in.
“As a landlord, we would hope that we have far less work to do in terms of rectifying problems post-build and dealing with ongoing repair problems. And if those things are less of a problem for us, they’re less of a problem then for the residents.”
Gaiger Homes site manager Andy Archer said he is proud of the high spec finishes of all of the homes on the site and said it was a conscious decision to ensure the private and housing association homes are indistinguishable. “Quality is what we're looking for, quality of the houses,” he said.
“We’re using handmade clay brick, all the roof tiles are slate or clay and we’re not using too many concrete products at all so we’ve really upped the game to get the quality of these houses.”
He and his team have been on site almost 18 months and are delighted to see the first occupants arrive. “The most pleasing thing for me is seeing all the finishing touches and seeing everyone here moving in. That's the goal for us, everybody moving in and being happy.”