Lockdown Couple Reserve A First Home In Hemel Hempstead

For many young couples, the month of February is a chance to show their loved ones how much they mean to them, and what better way to do this than to make the commitment to buy a first home together? After deciding they would move in together for lockdown and share a rented one-bedroom flat in Hemel Hempstead, 29-year-old Dan Nicholls and 31-year-old George Christou soon realised how compatible they are and made the choice to bring forward their future plans to buy a home.

After taking a walk together from nearby Apsley, Hill’s new development, The Gade, caught the eye of Dan and George and after viewing the show home, they have taken the plunge together and reserved one of the two-bedroom apartments.

Speaking about why they chose to reserve a home at The Gade, Dan commented: “George and I have been together for two years, we always had plans to buy a home together but lockdown made the choice for us really, so we are currently renting a one-bedroom flat together in Apsley which is just over a mile from The Gade. Living together in lockdown has been a real test of our relationship, being able to spend all this time together has definitely brought us closer and we haven’t got on each other’s nerves, so it was just the natural choice to buy somewhere together. We had looked around at a few properties near where we are now, but for what we would end up paying we felt the specification just didn’t match up.”

Looking forward to living in their new home, George talked about why they have chosen to stay in the area: “There is a certain premium you pay to live in Apsley as you are close to the Marina but The Gade offers us so much more in terms of value for money and the location is just perfect. The development is close to the old Tudor High Street with the lovely cobbled streets, we can walk to Gadebridge Park and it’s also really close to Hemel Hempstead station. We both have to travel into London for work so having the station so close by will make commuting really easy, once we are allowed to!”

Dan continued: “We have reserved a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment off-plan, we viewed the show apartment so we know the interior specification is great and our plot will be exactly the same layout. We will get underfloor heating as standard so no radiators taking up wall space! There is also a central plant that provides water and heating to the development, and being a newbuild it will have better insulation and efficiency in terms of sustainability which is definitely a plus point for us.

“We are both working from home at the moment which has been tricky from a space point of view - Hill have really thought about the layouts of the homes at The Gade, they are bright, spacious, offer more storage than others we had considered and we get our own parking space. We don’t have our own balcony or garden at the moment which is something we feel we have missed out on.

“Hopefully by the time we move into our new home together at The Gade, the summer will be well on its way and the first thing we can do is open the doors to our new balcony and enjoy having a beer together, and who knows, we might even be able to have friends over to celebrate with us by then too!”

Prices at The Gade start from £264,950 for a one-bedroom apartment and from £322,950 for a two-bedroom apartment.

Find out more about The Gade from Hill.

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