Happy to Park feet on housing ladder (From Swindon Advertiser)

Happy to Park feet on housing ladder

7:30pm Thursday 16th February 2012 in News By David Wiles

THE first residents are settling well into their new homes on the £22m Marlborough Park development in Swindon – and the development itself has just been shortlisted for a top award.

Phase one of the estate, off Pipers Way, is set to be completed by the end of May and more than half of the 204 homes are already occupied or soon to be occupied.

The nine-phase construction project, which started in early 2009 and is set to be completed in five years, will eventually feature 615 homes, ranging from one-bedroom appartments to large houses.

The development has just been shortlisted for the best large development category in the national first time buyer Awards – the only development in the county to appear in the shortlist.

Tiago Lopes, a wiring engineer, and his partner Karen Thompson wanted to move on from renting and moved into their own home at Marlborough Park at the end of last year. Tiago and his family bought a 50 per cent share in a two-bedroom home for £161,000.

He said: “We’d been renting in Old Town and had always wanted to step onto the property ladder, but never thought we could afford to do so. We started looking but could never find the right place that is until we saw Marlborough Park.

“There is so much more space in the properties, than what we had in our rented flat, and things had obviously been built to a high quality. Plus it is close to everything – there are shops, cafés and leisure facilities nearby, as well as great schools making it the perfect place to bring up a family.”

Phase one comprises a mix of one and two bedroom apartments, as well as two, three and four bedroom homes. Chris Cockram, sales and marketing manager for the south west at developer Places for People, said: “It’s gone exceptionally well. There’s an opinion and expectation these days that first time buyers shouldn’t even bother to go out looking because you cannot get a mortgage.

“We can get around that because we provide our own mortgages from Places for People. We can do 100 per cent mortgages.

“That’s basically why we think we’re up for this award.”

Marlborough Park is up against about five or six other people for the award, which is organised by the national trade magazine First Time Buyer.

The scheme that gets the most public votes at www.ftbawards.

com/online-voting.html will win. The closing date is March 28.