17/05/2024

Buying a Home Off-Plan

Buying a home off-plan brings with it a host of benefits, including the ability to choose certain finishes to better suit a purchaser’s tastes. Placing their trust in Berkeley to build the home of their dreams, Dave Williams (68) and his wife Gill bought a five-bedroom detached property off-plan at Highwood Village in Horsham, West Sussex, a year before construction on the property was due to be completed.

Dave, a retired Chartered Engineer and Gill previously owned a five-bedroom house in Great Bookham, Surrey. After their house sold in three weeks in October 2022, they chose a five-bedroom property at Highwood Village as their new home. Dave comments: “Our original plan was to put our home in Great Bookham on the market and decide what to purchase once we found a buyer. We were surprised when it sold in just three weeks, but luckily, we had already been browsing properties at Highwood Village. Initially my wife and I weren’t sure about buying off-plan as we both like to visualise what we’re buying, but we were really impressed with the whole process. Buying off-plan meant that we could choose the finishes from three different colour palettes, and the process was made really simple. Off-plan was definitely the best decision for us, as it’s made our home unique to us.”

Dave and Gill's Motivation to Move

After retiring before Covid in 2020, empty nesters Dave and Gill decided they wanted to move to a new build that needed lower maintenance. Dave comments: “After our children fled the nest, we were rattling around a large house and our road was getting lots more traffic which we didn’t get when we first moved in. When we bought our home in Bookham it was new, but 15 years on it was getting to the point where it needed updating and the NHBC warranty had run out. We’re nearly in our seventies, so we wanted somewhere that didn’t need any work or repairs and the garden was more manageable; somewhere we could relax and just enjoy our retirement.”

Location 

Situated on the edge of the West Sussex market town of Horsham, Dave and Gill enjoy the ease of living so close to amenities. Dave says: “I worked in Horsham in the 90s so we vaguely knew the area, although it has been updated a lot since then. We frequently visited the town and as a destination it’s great; we’ve got cafés, shops, restaurants and everything is there on the doorstep. Now we live here we don’t have to get in the car to go shopping, we have a half hour flat walk right into Horsham – something which was really important to us in terms of location.”

He continues: “It’s a quieter pace of life in West Sussex. I run off road so when choosing an area to move to, proximity to green space with tracks and trails I can run on was a consideration. Although we’re close to the M23, M25, and Gatwick Airport there are so many country trails and greenery surrounding us here. We feel like we’re really in the countryside – but we have fantastic accessibility if we want to go into London or further afield too.”

Why Buy at Highwood Village

Dave says of his favourite part of the property: “Although our new home is also a five-bed, it is smaller than our previous property so is actually a downsize. The significant difference was that we gained a family room which is just amazing. Our old kitchen was large but it didn’t really flow. Our new kitchen and family room is a beautiful open-plan area that flows throughout the ground floor – we can fit a sofa and dining table in so it gives the area a completely different ambience. We’ve also got a dining room too, so we can use that on holidays and special occasions.”

“The community here is great too, and there’s such a friendly feel to the village. Within a couple of days of moving in, two of our neighbours knocked on our door to give us freshly baked food that they’d made us as a welcoming gift. Everybody is just so friendly – people say hello when you walk past, which makes it such a pleasant place to live.”

The design and streetscape of Highwood Village was one that really appealed to Dave and Gill. Dave comments: “The whole design of the village gives a high-class impression. All parking is off-road on this side of the development which means the roads are clear, and it’s not like driving through a slalom to get home! This, as well as the sympathetic design of the houses, completely changes the ambience of the village and makes it feel high quality. It’s like nowhere we’ve ever lived before!”

Dave and Gill's Customer Journey

Speaking of buying off-plan with Berkeley, Dave comments: “As we reserved the property off-plan, we had a year to wait until construction was finished and we could actually move in. The communication from the sales team was incredible and we formed a great relationship with them. They have a great team at Highwood Village and they were so helpful with any of our queries. This gave us confidence that one of our biggest home purchases was money well spent.”

Find out more information about Highwood Village, a collection of two-to-five-bedroom homes just a short walk from the centre of Horsham.