Member Article

Tenants invited to help shape future homes

A special event has been held to seek the views of tenants and members of the public about the design of new homes for the region.

County Durham based Prince Bishops Homes, sought opinions on a selection of 10 new house types and layouts – devised by Ergo Projects – to inform decisions about styles on future developments.

Viewing artist’s impressions and floor plans, visitors were asked to rate the overall appearance of the designs, give opinions on the use of space and offer their preferences and suggestions on the house types as a whole.

Moya Jones, Sales and Marketing Director, said “Prince Bishops Homes is a growing organisation that listens to its customers and potential renters and buyers of the future.

“The feedback we receive is absolutely vital to our product development and ensures that the homes we build, meet the needs and aspirations of the people we aim to help – be it those taking the first step onto the housing ladder, or those looking for the perfect property in retirement.

“Ensuring that our houses are built to exacting standards of design, which appeal to our tenants and buyers, means they very quickly become homes that are cherished and cared for - fostering communities that thrive. It is a simple concept but one which works and that we have applied at various developments across the region.”

The designer chosen to provide the concepts for this consultation were Ergo Projects. Based in Newcastle, the company has a vast amount of experience within the residential sector and provides a comprehensive architectural design service.

Adrian Reay, Company Director, said: “All of our team has first-hand experience working directly with national housebuilders, which we feel ensures that our designs have a leading edge within the new build residential sector. However, this type of consultation was new to us and we were very excited to engage with the potential end users and obtain some real-time feedback on our initial design proposals

“Designing houses that are economically viable, practical and aesthetically pleasing can be quite a task. It was important to us that these house types responded to modern living trends and were easily adaptable.

“It was very interesting to hear the attendees different points of view and we are delighted that 100% of the visitors rated the elevations and layouts of the house types as either excellent or really good. We look forward to scrutinising the data collected with Prince Bishops Homes in more detail, as we move forward with this design process.”

Prince Bishops Homes is a subsidiary of Derwentside Homes - a not-for-profit, registered housing provider. Recently included in a list of the fastest growing 50 firms in the region, it is active on 10 sites and has further plans to invest over £100m in the construction of new homes by 2019.

Offering both homes for rent and for outright sale, the company is passionate about helping people to achieve the dream of owning their own home and escaping generation rent.

In support of this, Prince Bishops Homes’ innovative and market leading Rent to Buy model, ‘Moving on up’, allows people who have lived in their home for four years the chance to buy it and benefit from half of any increase in the property’s value over this period, as funds that they can use towards their mortgage deposit.

The organisation also provides a range of support mechanisms that can assist customers in becoming mortgage ready, improving their financial health and opening up the option of buying, to many who may have believed they had no choice but to rent.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .