From the office to her home: Claire falls in love with her new Gloucestershire pad

- 23 Jan 18

Looking for a new home, Claire Webb never dreamt that her dream property would turn out to be a Gloucestershire building where she used to regularly attend work meetings.

That's exactly what has happened, however, and now she is loving watching television in her colleague's former office and sleeping where her co-workers used to make their cups of tea!

First-time buyer Claire had been searching for a new home in the area and discovered that Bovis Homes, where she works in HR, was relocating its sales centre at Augustus Park, and transforming the offices into a lovely new three-storey home.

"I had been on the house search for a couple of months when the regional sales and marketing director mentioned that the sales centre was going to be turned into a new home," says Claire. "As it had offices and meeting rooms upstairs I had been there many times so knew the location well!"

Claire, who has lived in the Gloucester area all her life, works as a HR Business Partner for Bovis Homes, which has its Western regional office based in Bishop's Cleeve.

"Coopers Edge is the ideal location," says Claire. "As well as working at the Western office, I regularly travel to Bovis Homes' headquarters in Exeter and Reading, so it's really easy to get on the M5 and I'm on the right side of Gloucester for the M4.

"It was really hard to visualise what the home would be like at first, but when I saw the plans, I realised that it would be perfect for me."

The three-bedroom home has an open-plan kitchen and dining area, with French doors leading out into the garden. There is a separate sitting room on the first floor along with a bedroom and family bathroom. The master bedroom on the top floor, has an en suite and a built-in wardrobe.

"The layout is great for when I have visitors," says Claire. "I had the girls over the other day and it was perfect because I had plenty of space downstairs for entertaining and we didn't even need to go upstairs into the sitting room. I'm a clean freak, so it was fantastic that I could keep that room tidy!"

Claire, who has worked for Bovis Homes for nearly three years, used the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme to help her purchase her new property, which is where the purchaser receives an equity loan from the Government for up to 20% of the property's value, leaving just a 5% deposit and 75% mortgage required.

"Everything was so smooth and it's really helped me to understand the customer journey," says Claire. "All the sales staff and the site team were really friendly and they were all so helpful!

"I love the history of it. It was a sales centre for six years, so lots of colleagues have been there and know it well. I get a lot of people asking, 'how's the home?', which is really nice as it gives me lots of opportunities to talk about how much I love it!"

For more information about Centurion View, Imperial Place and Augustus Park at Coopers Edge, visit www.bovishomes.co.uk or visit the sales centre.

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