Tuesday 30 October 2012

BUILD IT AWARD

At The Hanley we have been active in the self-build lending market for a few years now and we have carved an impressive  niche by offering a bespoke service and a distinctive mortgage product to prospective borrowers keen to build their dream home. Last Thursday we attended the inaugural Build It award ceremony in Swindon and were announced at the lunch as Best Self Build Lender. We were thrilled to win such a prestigious accolade especially as the competition included other building societies with formidable reputations for innovation around the "green" agenda. The self build segment of the new housing market is blossoming and it is refreshing for us to be associated with such vibrancy.We do so in partnership with Buildstore the leading experts in this field (pardon pun) as this enables us to lend with our customary prudence and in full understanding of the project the customer has in mind. ( see www.buildstore.co.uk)  The Grand Designs image of self-build is a bit misleading as most people don't actually project manage themselves nor do they don wellies and wield a spirit-level. Most are content to employ experts throughout the process and are simply attracted by being able to influence the design and construction methods. One feature of our self-build lending is that it is widely spread across the country but I'm really hopeful we will soon be announcing that  The Hanley will be helping some local Stoke self-builders to fund their ambitions on some local plots. In many ways this is a contemporary version of what building society founders were doing 158 years ago, in helping local people to afford to build their own homes.