Following its official launch on 1 October, Strawberry Grange’s limited collection of serviced custom build plots is now available on the open market, giving buyers a rare opportunity to create an individually designed home within one of Aberdeen’s most carefully considered new residential settings.
A different way to create a new home has arrived in Aberdeen. The launch of Strawberry Grange was marked by a Preview Open House at Cognito at the Cross on Albyn Place, introducing prospective purchasers to the vision for the Culter House Road development and the possibilities offered by custom build.
And there was already momentum behind the launch. Two of the maximum 19 plots were sold during the pre-launch period, with double-digit prospective purchasers actively considering other plots as the development came to market.
Rather than choosing a finished house designed for someone else, Strawberry Grange gives purchasers the opportunity to start with the plot and create a home around how they want to live, now and in the years ahead.
Strawberry Grange will give purchasers their own individual plot and the opportunity to create a home designed around how they want to live, rather than choosing from a developer's predetermined range of house types. Custom build offers much of the freedom and individuality associated with building your own home, without requiring the homeowner to become the builder. At Strawberry Grange there is no catalogue of predetermined house types. Instead, purchasers choose their plot and work collaboratively with MAC Architects and contractor Kenway Homes to develop an individual home around how they want to live, their priorities and their budget, before it is professionally constructed. It is a collaborative approach between homeowner, architect and contractor that allows purchasers genuine involvement in everything from architecture and layout to the details that make a house distinctly theirs, while providing a structured route through design and construction rather than taking on a traditional DIY self-build. This model also makes much of the complexity that can make a traditional self-build daunting and less stressful and major hurdles have already been de-risked and addressed within the wider development. The result will not be 19 identical houses, but individual homes brought together within one carefully planned development.
Rubislaw Estate Agency is also working with Strawberry Grange on the marketing of the plots as they come to the open market.
The location is an important part of what makes the opportunity unusual. Set on Culter House Road on the western edge of Aberdeen, Strawberry Grange combines a leafy, semi-rural setting and access to the countryside with the practicality of remaining well connected to the city, airport, major transport routes north and south and Royal Deeside. With a maximum of only 19 plots, the development will be a small, distinctive neighbourhood made up of a collection of individually designed homes rather than an a conventional large-scale housing development of repeated house types, giving purchasers not simply the opportunity to choose a new home, but to shape one from the outset around how they want to live.
Julie Nairn, founder of Strawberry Grange, said: “We've been really encouraged by the level of serious interest during the pre-launch period. Two plots are already sold, and we have double-digit numbers of prospective purchasers seriously considering others, with people at various stages of discussing their designs and construction options.
Now that the plots have launched onto the open market, that early interest gives us a very positive starting point. With a maximum of only 19 plots available, there simply isn't the opportunity to create more once they're gone.”
She goes on to say “No two conversations we’re having are the same, and that’s precisely the point of custom build. People aren’t being asked to fit their lives into somebody else’s idea of a home; they have the opportunity to create one around their own. What has been particularly interesting is seeing how different people's priorities are, which is exactly why the custom build model makes sense. The home starts with the people who are going to live in it, rather than asking them to adapt their lives to a house somebody else has designed.”
Further information about Strawberry Grange, the custom build process, wider vision and available plots can be found on the Strawberry Grange website www.strawberry-grange.co.uk