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Attention to Detail The Key to Housebuilder’s Success

Posted 28 November 2018 by Keith Osborne

Chris Hamilton, managing director of Martin Grant Homes, tells us about its new homes and the secret of the company's success...

Our exclusive interview this week is with Chris Hamilton, managing director of Dorking-based Martin Grant Homes, about the housebuilder, its developments and what buyers can expect by choosing one of its homes.

 

Please tell us a bit about yourself and Martin Grant Homes.

Martin Grant Homes is a 40-year-old housebuilder with developments primarily in London and the South East, but also in the Midlands. We employ just shy of 90 people and deliver around 300 homes each year, placing a strong emphasis on attention to detail and the delivery of a high-quality product which our customers can call a home for life.

Martin Grant Homes started life as a family company in 1978 and it still holds that philosophy dear today. That was a real pull factor for me as I like the fact the board is accountable to the family trust. We keep making strong progress in the face of challenging conditions so it’s nice to see our reputation continue to grow.

From a personal perspective, I’ve been involved in the property industry for quite a while now. I left school after my A-Levels and began working with my father, who was a site manager, on my 18th birthday. I was doing bits and bobs around site to learn the ropes and began to fall in love with housebuilding. It’s fair to say that health and safety was a little more relaxed back then!

I spent three years there, including a year in their commercial department as a trainee surveyor. I left to take the position of assistant surveyor at Thameswey Homes, part of the Tarmac Housing Division at the time, before becoming a regional division of George Wimpey plc after their asset swap in 1995. I spent 11 years at Thameswey Homes and was promoted to department manager in 1994 and commercial director in 1998.

Four-year stints at Fairclough Homes, an American-owned company dipping its toes into the UK and European housing market for the first time, and Bovis Homes South East, were followed by a similar length spell at Linden Homes Southern, part of the Galliford Try Group. I accepted an invitation to join Martin Grant Homes in December 2013 and was promoted to the managing director’s role six months later.

What developments are currently open and what kind of properties are available?

Where do I begin? At the moment we’ve got 11 live sites and plenty more in the pipeline. We try not to pigeonhole ourselves as a developer in terms of the buyers we’re trying to reach, so live developments currently range from the likes of nine homes in a Surrey village to first-time buyer-led schemes at a 3,000 new home community in Aylesbury. Our homes span from 560 sq ft to 2,600 sq ft.

Other stand-out developments include Penrose Park, one of our larger schemes in Biggleswade, or Buckton Fields, Northampton, where we’ve just released a new phase. We’ve launched twice in Surrey this year with Halsey Meadows and The Maltings, located in Bramley and West End respectively, as well as Hampshire and West Sussex, where there is the 82 home Maple Fields development, and the 27-home Summerswood development.

Which of them are you most proud of, and why?

Buckton Fields is a personal favourite of mine. It’s in a small village about 15 minutes from Northampton, so it was new territory for us in a geographical sense, but we adapted to it really well and sales have been flying from day one.

Another is The Maltings, a 57-unit project in the village of West End, near Woking. It’s aimed towards the higher end of the market and the location is just fantastic and typical Surrey territory, so that’s really been the cherry on the cake for me. We actually identified the site over 25 years ago but it never came into fruition until we revisited it and purchased off market in 2016.

Is there a Martin Grant Homes USP to home design and specification?

I have spent a good deal of my career at big Plcs so it was a real surprise for me to witness just how much detail and care goes into the developments at a family business like Martin Grant Homes. Our brick and block construction process means we’re quite traditional in some respects but I think what really sets us apart is our attention to detail. We spend a great deal of time on the internal design process and the perfecting of a really high-quality specification, with nice touches like oak finish internal doors across all developments, and built-in wardrobes to every master bedroom, for example.

We couldn’t be any further from the ‘build them high and sell them quick’ attitude. Our attention to detail is something that our customers often provide feedback on, so it’s nice for that to be noticed.

Are there assistance schemes and customer care services that buyers can expect from you?

Absolutely. Site managers will always visit homeowners immediately after they move in to ensure they have settled in well and they are given a window of seven days to request any alterations. Full sign-off is done 28 days later, from which point the customer care team will respond to any queries. Every single home of ours is also covered by the ten-year NHBC warranty scheme.

What new developments are set for launch in the near future?

We’ve got exciting plans for 2019. There are a few still in the planning stages but in terms of immediate launches we’ve got The Pines, which sits on the cusp of Chichester Harbour’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the village of Birdham, and we also have another site in Hampshire that will come to the market relatively soon.

How can potential buyers find out what's currently available first-hand?

Our website is the first port of call for current site’s information and availability, and has details of our sales centres where our sales advisors are on hand to help daily, from 10.00am. We also advertise through the standard marketing channels and online portals.

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