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KIRKWOOD HOMES MAKES IMPRESSIVE START TO 2011 AS NEW HOUSES SELL OUT IN HOURS

Luxury builder Kirkwood Homes is leading the way in improving the state of the housing industry in the north-east of Scotland with the first phase of its latest houses selling out in less than 24 hours – racking up £2.75 million of sales.

The Sauchen-based builder, which specialises in high-end specification homes, sold nine houses at its Craig Elachie Gardens development at Monymusk within hours of the plots being released for sale last Thursday. A total of 24 luxury homes and five listed steading conversions will be built in the Donside village and Kirkwood expects demand for the remaining plots to remain high.

Managing director Colin Crombie said the rush of sales was a clear illustration of pent-up demand in the housing industry and recent improvements in the lending market – for example, the availability of 90% mortgages and a large range of very attractively priced mortgage products for customers who have larger deposits coupled with a stable economic situation in the region, meant the north-east market was in much better health than elsewhere in Scotland.

He added “On some of our existing developments we have achieved the same number of sales in the first three months of 2011 as we did in the whole of 2010 and have already achieved 40% of our sales target for 2011 with good levels of sales being achieved across all our current developments at Fettercairn, Laurencekirk, Stonehaven, Insch, Fetterangus and Keith. It provides a very encouraging outlook for the rest of the year and into 2012.

“Our experience in recent months is that there is definitely more confidence in the local market than there is in other regions in Scotland and the rest of the UK. It is greatly encouraging for us as a business, but also for other homebuilders that customers are buying property again. I genuinely think there is movement in the housing market with people looking for a move up the ladder. This requires first-time buyers to have the means to get on the ladder whilst the recent announcements from the government to assist first time buyers is welcome more needs to be done between government and the lenders to make more finance and purchasing options are available to first time buyers.

“House builders have had to work hard to provide deals and options to allow people to buy through the tougher times and those innovations - and a willingness to inject flexibility into the buying process - is now paying off as confidence has returned.”

In addition to increased sales for Kirkwood Homes, demand for Kirkwood Timber Frame products to supply kits for self-build, as well as smaller developers, had increased. Both companies are part of the Kirkwood Group, which also incorporates Kirkwood Construction and Kirkenergy.

Kirkwood Homes employs 100 people and expects to increase its workforce in coming months with two thirds of those directly employed “on site” building new homes. It also employs its own architects, surveyors and designers. Kirkwood’s timber frames are also built at its own manufacturing facility at Sauchen.

Kirkwood Homes has forged a solid reputation focusing on quality rather than quantity and was delighted to announce at the start of the year that it had achieved 100% customer satisfaction on all houses completions in 2010. A commitment to high standards of finishing and fittings has been put ahead of volume building and its pricing structure has established the firm towards the luxury end of the market. The company’s developments are located almost entirely within the north east of Scotland.

Caption: Luxury homebuilder Kirkwood Home has reported a strong start to 2011 having already achieved 40% of its sales target for 2011 with good levels of sales being achieved across all current developments in north-east Scotland.