Visit to Cala Homes development in Wokingham

The new Cala flats are being built close to the Emm off Molly Millars Lane. The company has provided new one and two bedroom flats for sale, has sold a block of flats to a Housing Association and has produced some affordable homes as well. All the current phase are now sold, so there was not even a Show Home to see. During the visit I was taken onto the construction site for the next phase, which has reached roof level, and shown the landscaping measures taken surrounding the properties.I wish all the new homeowners and tenants in this development every happiness in their new homes, and thank the company and NHBC for spending time reviewing progress with me.

I was particularly interested in the issue of surface water handling. The company has replaced the old culvert that went through the site, and says it has now provided a larger area to store surplus water when we have heavy rains to avoid flooding near or into buildings. They were well aware of the need to make improvements to the Emm in a low lying area, and have done so. They were building in a location which had been built on before.

The site is close to the Town Centre shops, station and Tesco, and adjacent to Lidl. We discussed a range of issues concerning new building, from insulation standards and environmental requirements through the planning process and finance availability for new purchasers. Several buyers have used the government’s Help to Buy scheme, and shared ownership is also an option in some cases.

I explained that I am keen to see improvements to water handling on each new site in Wokingham, as we need to improve compared to the current situation as well as ensuring the system can handle the extra water run off new construction can cause.

2 Comments

  1. Mike Wilson
    June 3, 2014

    With a one bedroom apartment costing 5 grand short of 200k (http://www.romans.co.uk/Property/64163) – I do wonder who on earth pays this amount of money for a tiny flat. What hope of housing do people have on average wages? I’d be interested to know how many of those flats have been sold to buy to let landlords who will extract getting on for £1000 a month in rent for a 2 bed flat.

    According to http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/nov/24/wages-britain-ashe-mapped the median wage for Wokingham is just under £28k. Quite how people on average wages are supposed to live baffles me. Either a huge mortgage or massive rents. And this is still at very low interest rates. What happens when rates go up does not bear thinking about.

    The government’s Help to Buy scheme is a trap for unwary youngsters.

  2. alan jutson,
    June 7, 2014

    There was a show apartment to view early last year, as I also visited the development to view what was on offer simply out of interest.

    Before retirement I was in the design and build construction business and so simply wanted to see what was on offer locally.

    I visited the furnished two bedroom apartment, and whilst construction seemed of a reasonable standard, some of the rooms were rather small, indeed the second bedroom was devoid of any storage space, or even room for a good sized wardrobe. which was rather a shame.

    Whilst the outside of the development is attractive, the main fault I found with the development was a complete lack of parking, (confirmed by the sales staff present) with such being restricted to one car park space for each apartment with no opportunity to purchase extra, indeed there was no parking space for a single visitor either, so what happens when the doctor, tradesmen, family or friends call is a real problem, as the development is surrounded by double yellow lines.

    Such a shame that the idiotic policy of the planning department of deliberately restricting parking places on new developments, will lead to parking chaos once all apartments are occupied.

Comments are closed.