Smart Move Opening Doors to House Buyers

An Ulster builder has bucked the trend in the current property climate by announcing the launch of a new housing development.

In one of the biggest steps yet towards building confidence in the recovering property market, Lisburn firm WJ Law is set to build 24 houses on a new site at The Cotton in North Down.

And at a time when new builds have been put on hold across Northern Ireland, the Lisburn firm has already reported off-plan sales of Avonmore Court, where work is due to start this month.

WJ Law Director, David Law said: “There are two reasons people stopped buying and that is the risk of negative equity and the inability to get a mortgage.

We decided we needed to tackle both problems to get the market moving again and we did this by introducing our Price Guarantee and Smart Move schemes.

Since the launch of these schemes last autumn, we have seen a big increase in interest and sales across all our developments.

Avonmore is a great location and as there is a scarcity of new properties in the Bangor area, we decided to launch the scheme off-plan last month.

Since January 7, we are delighted to say that seven have already been purchased, five through our Smart Move Scheme.”

Through Smart Move, WJ Law will pay 25 per cent of the house price which the owner can then pay back at market value when they sell their home on or within 10 years, whichever comes first.

Through heir Price Guarantee Scheme, the company will guarantee a buyer that if the same type of home is completed on the same specification basis for a lesser price prior to December 31 2009, then the company will refund the difference plus the difference paid in stamp duty.

Avonmore Court is a mix of 24 modern, Georgian style homes located between 6 Roads Ends and Donaghadee. Prices start from £170,000 for a Russett Cottage terrace to £240,000 for detached at Chambers Cottage.

David Law added: “Sales are picking up elsewhere for us. Across all our developments – Summerhill in Banbridge, Ballantine Garden Village in Lisburn, Bishopshill in Dromore and now Avonmore Court in Bangor, there have been excellent sales this month with 25 homes agreed since January 5th.”