Home Designs And Locations Suiting Buyers’ New Priorities

We talk to Chris Hamilton, managing director of Martin Grant Homes, about how his company’s home types in the right locations for homebuyer’s new requirements, the importance of family values, and his reminder that government incentives for buyers will not last forever.

What do you think differentiates your company's service from other new home developers?

Martin Grant Homes is still a privately run, family owned company, that retains the values and ethos of our founder Mr Martin Grant. The company delivers a quality product with every aspect of the design and specification carefully considered to provide a ‘home’ to meet the needs and aspirations of our customers.

Tell us a bit about your day-to-day role as managing director.

Much of my day-to-day is spent supporting and guiding my colleagues and teams at Martin Grant Homes, with a bit of troubleshooting thrown in. As you would expect the company has an annual budget for home completions, costs and customer service targets and the whole team is focused on delivering the best performance possible. Having agreed and set these annual objectives I help and guide where I am needed and ensure that the team are properly and fully equipped to complete their individual roles.

I spend as much time as possible on our developments reviewing our sales arenas, build quality, health and safety and site welfare arrangements, and enjoy interaction with our site management professionals and the tradesmen and women on the frontline.

In my spare time I review the company’s longer-term outlook and strategies and consider what performance improvements initiatives are required to achieve the Company Vision of Delivering the Exemplary New Homes Customer Experience.

You operate in the South East, are there pockets that are performing stronger than others at the moment?

Martin Grant Homes operate widely across the Home Counties, particularly, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. We are currently working on some very attractive developments and they are all proving to be very popular with home buyers. Our locations are situated in the London commuter belt so are supported by excellent infrastructure and communication links, allowing convenient commuting to both work and leisure facilities, whilst also offering access to the beautiful English countryside, all of which is all hugely appealing.

Kingsfield Court

What's your take on Covid-19 causing a genuine lifestyle shift for many people who have spent years commuting into central London but may no longer need to, are you seeing this happen?

There does appear to be a definite shift recently. Homebuyers are certainly looking for more flexibility from their homes. Outside space is particularly important and this could be either a private garden or a well-managed and maintained public open space. The ability to have a quiet space inside the home is also important to allow for flexible working from home. Covid-19 has certainly exposed some constraints in old housing stock and inner city living that were not on home buyers’ radar this time last year.

Are you adapting the layout of your homes to accommodate more home working options, in response to Covid-19?

Martin Grant Homes has not had to make any adaptions to our home offering in response to Covid-19 as all of our designs and specifications already considered the flexibility to accommodate modern living and home working. All our homes have a space that can be adapted and used as a quiet area for home working. Our homes are wired and serviced to support a home IT network and communications. All a buyer needs to do is contract with their preferred internet provider and they are on the global digital highway.

What are your top three tips for people looking to buy a new home in 2020?

• Consider the home and location and ensure this meets your current and anticipated future needs.
• Search the mortgage market to get the best product available to meet your own personal circumstances.
• The government Help to Buy scheme is being amended in 2021 and the Stamp Duty exemption window closes on the 31 March 2021. The incentives are there to help and save you money… so use them while you can.

Buckton Fields show home

Does Martin Grant Homes offer any incentives for people purchasing from Martin Grant?

Martin Grant Homes has an allocation under Help to Buy and this is available on all of our qualifying products and on all of our operational developments. We also have a number of new homes that are currently exempt from Stamp Duty thanks to recent changes. Many other incentives are available across our developments on an individual home by home basis, for example, at our Kingsfield Court development in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, we are offering a £1,500 John Lewis voucher and legal fees paid.

What are the main schemes you're working on at the moment?

Current developments include Buckton Fields in Northampton, a beautiful development on the outskirts of the town and close to open countryside. Once complete, the development will offer a range of facilities, including its own primary school which is set to open in September 2021, convenience shops and services, open parkland and play spaces. Another significant scheme is Coombelands Gardens in Addlestone, Surrey. Set on the site of a former printworks, the development is proving to be very popular thanks to its excellent links to London via the M25 or by train, whilst still retaining a genuine sense of country seclusion.

We are also very excited to be launching a major development in Church Crookham, Hampshire. The development sits on a 33.5 hectare redundant farm site and will deliver 300 new homes in total, with 180 private and 120 through Shared Ownership and affordable rent. We anticipate that this scheme will be hugely popular with homebuyers looking for a great location that will also provide access to new community facilities alongside planned and managed public open spaces.

Are there interior trends which are proving particularly popular with new home buyers at the moment?

Flexibility around home working has become very important to people since the pandemic. Also, open-plan living and dining areas allow for families to come together. Purchasers particularly enjoy having access to their gardens easily and on a number of our developments bi-fold doors allow for this access directly from a spacious kitchen diner. We have recently introduced a new contemporary range of handle-less kitchens which are also proving popular on a number of developments.

And finally, where would you like your company to be twelve months from now?

Developing a number of new developments throughout the Home Counties and our key areas of operation as the land that we currently control is delivered through the planning system. There are exciting times ahead for Martin Grant Homes.

Find out more atwww.martingranthomes.co.uk.