Steve Rule, Group Design & Technical Director said: “Our Light and Space homes are designed not just to allow family members to co-exist, but to really thrive together and enjoy the space they live in, whether they are working, relaxing or enjoying time together.
“In recent times, elements which enable home working have become crucial – if working from home is easy to set up and runs smoothly, this has a knock-on positive effect on our whole lifestyle. That’s why we have carefully considered and designed our homes with the new WFH reality in mind.”
The Light and Space collection features flexible spaces throughout, including dedicated studies in 50% of our homes, that’s most of our 4 and 5 bedroom properties. Where a study is harder to accommodate, for example some of our 3 bedroom homes, the smallest bedroom will always be ready for easy home working. This means an additional data point, as well as sockets to make logging in a simple task.
We’ve also launched new features which make connectivity to the outside world a breeze, boosting your home working experience, or keeping the kids happy while they tune in or game on.
Steve said: “We’ve recently launched ‘instant Sky’ in our homes, which means your property can be set up with Sky TV and broadband services in advance so that you can simply plug in and surf or watch the minute you move in. That’s a big plus point for those whose home working can’t be interrupted and takes away the stress of waiting days or even weeks to get online.
“Our broadband has entered the next generation, too – we now provide hyperoptic broadband connectivity as standard across our developments, pre-fitted and activated to offer gigabit-enabled internet with consistent speed regardless of the time of day, devices connected or who else is also online. It’s truly the gold standard of connectivity and can prove vital for home working and keeping the family happy.”
Working and playing at home has never been easier for our customers, but how are we ensuring this new balance minimises our homes’ environmental footprint, and our customers’ bills? One way is through maximising the energy efficiency of our homes, something that we are always developing.
Important considerations include the materials we use, boiler efficiency, water-saving systems, quality insulation and the research, trial and roll-out of the latest sustainable innovations. We employ energy efficient lighting and heating in all of our homes, and have recently partnered with Google Nest to offer the Google Nest Smart Learning Thermostat on various developments, on properties above 1300 sq.ft, which programs itself and automatically helps save energy when customers are away from their homes. It can be controlled using a phone, tablet or laptop or with Google Assistant devices by simply saying “Hey Google, make it warmer.”
As well this, we’ll be offering a selection of smart upgrades available through site specifications or customer upgrades, including Nest Hello, Nest Protect, Nest Cameras and Nest Hubs.
Steve continued: “By giving our customers the space, flexibility and technology to maximise both work and family time (or even a little bit of ‘me time’), we hope that elusive work life balance will become a reality, with our homes at the heart of it.”
