WhatHouse? Awards 2020 Winner: Horgan Homes
With its first entries in the WhatHouse? Awards, Horgan Homes won a Silver in the Best Small Housebuilder category and a Bronze award for Best Luxury House in 2020. Director Sophie Horgan tells us what it’s meant to her and the company.
Congratulations on your WhatHouse? Awards success in 2020. What does it mean for your customers?
We had an incredible reaction to winning the two awards, especially as this was the first time that we had entered awards of any kind! The feedback from our homebuyers was lovely – they were genuinely delighted that we’d been recognised on a national scale and in such prestigious awards.
What inspired you to enter the Awards?
We truly believed that we had built something special with our last development, Manor Gardens. It’s very easy when you’re involved in the day-to-day build to not see the bigger picture but as we came towards the end of the project, we wanted to showcase it to a wider audience so they could see what we had achieved.
We had won a Bricks award from the LABC as well last year for a previous development we built so that made us realise that actually we were delivering a quality product and maybe it was time that we opened that up to some scrutiny.
Manor Gardens
How are the categories you won significant for your company and the wider industry?
Winning an award for the Best Luxury House was what we had hoped for, although we knew that the competition would be tough. It was real validation that we had achieved what we set out to do – design, build and deliver a home that was so special it stood out from the crowd.
To win the Silver award for Best Small Housebuilder was the icing on the cake, especially as a relatively small business. We had been totally transparent about our background, our ethos, how we operate and the standards we seek to maintain, so to get the seal of approval from the WhatHouse? judges was very rewarding. From the point of view of the wider industry, it gives that external validation that Horgan Homes is a credible and experienced housebuilder and one to watch.
What are the key qualities and USPs that led to you entering?
As a small housebuilder and developer, working on bespoke high-quality developments, we’re quite niche. We felt that our scheme reached an incredible benchmark, delivering new build homes that achieved standards not seen in the area. A WhatHouse? Award is a prestigious accolade and we knew that winning one would be an independent seal of approval that we do deliver what we say we do!
Did you find it easy to submit an entry?
It was very easy to submit an entry and it was an interesting process, pulling together all the different information into one place. It reinforced the depth of the project and was a really useful lookback on our process for the entire design and build of Manor Gardens.
Sophie Horgan
Have you had much feedback from other housebuilders about your win?
The housebuilding community has been very supportive, and we’ve had lots of positive feedback since we won. It’s great being able to say you’re an award-winning housebuilder and it definitely makes your peers sit up and take notice!
What value has winning added to your business?
As a small housebuilder it can be hard to compete against some of the bigger industry names, so winning two WhatHouse? awards has helped to get our business better known in the sector. It also gives confidence to our future buyers that we are a trustworthy and experienced housebuilder that delivers the quality we say we will.
It must have been satisfying for everyone at the company – does your achievement help to retain and attract the best people to the team?
We have a relatively low turnover of staff but that independent verification from an external organisation that we’re an “award-winning” business is helpful. It’s gives real credence to Horgan Homes as a legitimate player on the field.
Do you have any current developments in mind to enter into the 2021 Awards?
Our current scheme is still in the planning stages but it’s absolutely one for future awards. We’re going to be building an exclusive development on £1million+ single storey contemporary homes – they may officially be ‘bungalows’, but they certainly won’t follow any bungalow stereotype you might think of. We can’t wait to start work on them.
Find out about current Horgan Homes developments at horganhomes.co.uk.