Ballantine Garden Village is a vibrant and architecturally striking place to live which also will include shops, a crèche, doctors’ surgery, chemist and coffee shop. The retirement cottages and retirement clusters are an integral part of this vibrant community.

The cottages each have 4 bedrooms, where the ground floor bedroom is designed to be a further reception room until adaptation occurs. Adaptation is when the ground floor bedroom becomes the principal bedroom and the upstairs is adapted to become a carer’s apartment.

The principle is that people can move in at 75 years old. After a number of years they may need the Stannagh stair lift. Eventually, owners can easily adapt the home, and utilise the ground floor bedroom. Upstairs, the adapted home will then have an apartment for the use of a carer, or perhaps a relative.

Additionally owners of the retirement cottages may join in with the support services. The first port of call will be the Wardens living on site. Later, a higher level of support and domiciliary services will be available, based within the care home.

Reassurance and unobtrusive support is available also through the Fold tele health and tele care. From £6 per month, residents are given peace of mind through remote care. Each home is built to the highest UK specification available and is monitored by Fold telecare.

When a sensor is activated Fold will speak to residents through the built-in system and send either a relative or the Warden as needed.

Sensors can also be set to have the light go on gently in the bathroom automatically. Other examples are sensors at the door which can tell if a resident has been outside longer than expected.

For added peace of mind, sensors can be worn round the neck and, in the case of the period following hip surgery, a fall sensor can be worn.

While the first cottage is being built, a retirement cottage showroom is being developed at the Ballantine Garden Village
HQ. Within the showroom is a show suite of a retirement kitchen and bathroom facilities, plus information on the entire Retirement scheme.

We are grateful for the help of Fold, Age NI, and the Northern Ireland Older Persons Commissioner who are assisting us to ensure that the designs for the elderly are right first time. The first retirement cottage, site 131 is available for £225,000.

Read more about the developments in www.Homes4Retired.co.uk and be sure to Like us on Facebook too!

The fairytale cottage, built by Lisburn developers W J Law, had been entered into the competition by its owners Jonathan and Joanne Kelly who fell in love with the quirkiness and architectural detail which had been lavished on their home.

Each of the 3 judges on the BBC 1 show were impressed with the beautiful home which the Developers W.J. Law and Jonathan and Joanne had created.

On the show Lawrence states:

“The quality; the detail; the commitment from the developer, the architect, and the builder to do something a little bit out of the ordinary, in fact a lot out of the ordinary, is highly commendable”

The home is one of the W.J. Law Fairytale Cottages, available at Ballantine Garden Village. The featured home is designed in the “Picturesque” style, and the W.J. Law named it the Nash Cottage, after John Nash, the regency architect who was particularly noted for this style of architecture. Indeed at Blaise Hamlet near Bristol, Nash designed a small village completely in this evocative fairytale style. As a prolific designer, Nash is also credited with many famous buildings, including Regent Street, and also Buckingham Palace.

At Ballantine Garden Village, homes range from £135,000 for a 2-bedroom 850sq foot “Pied a Terre” home with a large South Facing Balcony; right through to large detached homes at £275,000. Fairytale Cottages start at £175,000. This will buy you a semi detached “Gingerbread Cottage” with sunroom and more expensive detached customised homes are available also. These come with inspired Fairytale Cottage names such as Hansel’s Cottage, Gretal’s Cottage, Cinderella’s Cottage and of course Rapunzel’s Cottage.

All the Ballantine homes can be seen at www.ballantinegardenvillage.co.uk

This article will show that, almost unnoticed, a property miracle has been occurring over the last number of years, and for once all the news is good…
Over the last number of years, a slow tightening of requirements by The Building Control Regulations has seen new homes being built to increasingly high standards for heat and sound insulation. Gone are the days of listening to what your neighbours are up to through he walls! Noise transfer needs a “route through” either by way of light materials allowing transfer, or joints not closed up. Nowadays every new home is required to be pressure tested to ensure there are no air leaks or gaps, plus the simple mass of material used (ever tried to lift 2 sheets of plasterboard?) makes noise transfer a thing of the past.

However it is in relation to the costs to heat the hot water and home, where new standards of homes are most visibly seen. Below is a copy of 6 months of Phoenix Gas heating bills for a 5-bedroom home at Ballantine Garden Village in Lisburn. The family of 3 in this home could not believe how little it cost to heat their home, and this includes their entire hot water needs. (They each promised that they shower every day!) As can be seen their costs are less than £18 per month. The owner jokes that he heats the home with the 42” television, as he never has it on, and the costs are basically that of having showers and baths. The home in question is almost 2000 sq feet and is semi detached; the mind spins at to how little a smaller single person home in a mid terrace situation would be!

David Law, Director of the Developers of Ballantine, W.J Law & Co LLP said; “these costs are unbelievable, we have asked the owner to monitor the bills over the next 6 months also to get a full year picture; wouldn’t it be nice if buyers knew this sort of thing before they moved?”

Here it is then; good news of a property miracle!

How 1st Time Buyers Can Buy a WJ Law Home (even with no deposit)

W.J. Law are delighted that through Northern Ireland Co – Ownership http://www.co-ownership.org/ buyers can buy a W.J. Law home, even if they have no deposit.

Co Ownership allows 1st time buyers to buy homes below £175,000, and buyers with no deposit may seek the balance through the Ulster Bank. Buyers with some deposit are less constrained of course.

Based on buyers with no deposits, a £95,000 semi detached home at Summerhill, Banbridge will pay only £65 per week, whilst a detached “Stable Yard Mews” home at Ballantine Garden Village would be £112 per week; based on a list price of £175,000.

Buyers would be best to take care with the Mortgage Application, and W.J. Law can recommend 2 agencies whom we have found to give buyers the best chance of success:

The Mortgage Shop
17 Bow Street 
Lisburn
Antrim
Franchisee: Phil Convery 
Email: phil.convery@themortgageshop.net
Telephone: 02892 664123 
Fax: 02892 664126

Reeds Rains
Lois Keefe
2 Frances Street
Newtownards
Email: l.keefe@reedsrains.co.uk
Telephone – 02891 814144

Live Pricing Cost Per Week