Newlyweds Save Hard For Long-Term First Home
For husband and wife Samir Divecha (32) and Avni Karia (30), buying their first home to start their married life together required a year of living with Samir’s parents in Kidlington, which enabled them to save as much money as possible for a deposit on a new home.
Homebuyers in Oxfordshire have seen property prices increase by 6.8% in the last year, due in part to the Chancellor’s Stamp Duty holiday and more buyers looking to move out of large cities like London and into nearby counties. For first-time buyers in particular, the road to buying a home, especially one large enough to start a family in, can be a challenging one with large deposits required – averaging out at £59,000 – with demand outstripping supply.
Avni and Samir, from nearby Kidlington, married two years ago and dreamt of a buying the perfect home where they could look to start a family of their own. With their hearts set on a new build property in their preferred location of Bicester, they homed in on the new Kingsmere village community due to its transport connections to see friends and family and nearby amenities.
Avni said: “We visited all of the home builders on site at Kingsmere but, for us, CALA’s homes clearly stood out. They are exceptionally light and airy with stunning fixtures and fittings – plus they have high ceilings which was a must-have for us. We knew we ideally wanted a four-bedroom home but thought this might be out of reach until the Stamp Duty holiday was announced last year – this really made all the difference for us and boosted our savings achieved while living with parents.
Avni and Samir bought the ‘Nenhurst’, which is currently released at £545,000 and were able to save around £15,000 with the government’s Stamp Duty holiday scheme.
Avni continued: “We always wanted to buy a new home, as we both love a modern, clean, minimalist interior. Renovating a second-hand home can throw up all kinds of nasty surprises and additional cost, so we just felt that we’d get better value for money with a new property.
“After a lot of help and support from the CALA team at Kingsmere, we settled on the four-bedroom ‘Nenhurst’, which features energy-efficient solar panels and other greener elements – another important factor for us. We both work from home often, so we was a lovely surprise to see we could afford a separate study and en suite bathrooms for when friends and family come to stay.”
Samir said that, since moving in earlier this year, they have settled in brilliantly and got to know their neighbours well.
“With the turbulence of the last 18 months for us all with the pandemic, it feels fantastic to be well settled here and enjoying our new home. Kingsmere offers everything we could possibly need, and we don’t plan to move again for a very long time. We’re excited to properly start our married life here together in our perfect home and would highly recommend the experience we’ve had buying with CALA Homes to anyone.”
CALA at Kingmere is a collection of two-bedroom apartments and three- and four-bedroom homes from the WhatHouse? Award-winning housebuilder, located in a picturesque rural setting close to Bicester Village, just 15 minutes from Oxford city centre and 45 minutes to central London by train.
Reservations at Kingsmere before 31 August 2021 can benefit from an extra £5,000 towards any incentive of their choice plus carpets throughout in their chosen home (terms and conditions apply). Due to increased demand CALA has limited availability of homes this year and is now selling into 2022. Find out more at www.cala.co.uk.
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