Finding the perfect family home

Martin Miller and Karen Huttley, both 26, can’t believe their luck in finding their ideal family home at Ringland Park, a development by Barratt Eastern Counties in the new village of Queen’s Hills. With Norwich just five miles away, a school for their three-year old son Daniel on their doorstep and beautiful surrounding countryside, it offers the perfect package.

Before buying their new three-bedroom home, the family was living in a two-bedroom terraced house in Gorleston, near Yarmouth. Both Martin and Karen work in Norwich, Martin in IT with Norwich Union (Aviva) and Karen part-time in the pensions department of Swiss Re, and it therefore made sense to move closer to their offices. By chance, they heard a radio advertisement for Ringland Park and decided to take a look.

Martin comments: “We weren’t particularly looking for a new build home, but we really liked the house at Ringland Park and it was ready to move into. We won’t have to do any decoration or maintenance and that also appealed to us. The excellent primary school at Queen’s Hills was also a huge selling point for us.”

Martin and Karen didn’t have to worry about selling their old house because Barratt bought it from them through its popular Part Exchange arrangement and put the value towards their new home.

Martin explains: “Barratt was incredibly helpful. They valued our old house at a very fair price and then took £5,000 off the price of our new home, reducing it to £175,000. They paid five per cent towards our deposit and we didn’t have to pay stamp duty, so in the end we only paid £166,000. Barratt also helped by recommending a financial advisor and solicitor, and they were both excellent.”

By using part exchange, Martin and Karen didn’t have to pay estate agent fees, saving them even more, and just six weeks after reserving their home, they moved in.

Their new home is very spacious, on the ground floor they have an open plan living area which opens through double doors on to the rear garden, so Martin and Karen can keep an eye on Daniel when he’s playing outside.

The location of their new home couldn’t be better, as Karen explains: “It’s really peaceful here, but we’re also close to Norwich. There’s a very good bus service between Ringland Park and the city centre, so we both take the bus into work.” The A47 ring road that leads directly to all the major routes is also nearby.

Queen’s Hills has its own primary school and Daniel has already started in the nursery. Karen comments: “Daniel loves going to nursery and when he’s old enough he’ll move up to the primary school. It’s important to us that Daniel gets a good education and we’re very impressed with the school – it’s got a lovely atmosphere and is very modern with the latest technology.”

Ringland Park is part of the new village at Queen’s Hills in Costessey. The village is set in 86 acres of beautiful parkland and has its own village centre, school, recreation ground, football pitches and plenty more. Currently available at Ringland Park are two-bedroom apartments priced from £124,995 and two, three and four bedroom houses starting from £159,995.

Barratt has an excellent range of incentives to help people in different circumstances. The new Government scheme Home Buy Direct is available on selected homes; this allows the buyer to purchase a home for only 70 per cent of the price; the remaining 30 per cent is an equity loan.

For more information, log on to Barratthomes.co.uk.