Become a homeowner in the area where you grew up – Pocket makes it happen!
The idea of buying a home where you grew up seems a bit of a pipe-dream – pie in the sky even! And so it may be for many Londoners, but Pocket is trying hard to make it possible for as many city makers as possible to own a home in their local area.
We are very proud to introduce Thomas Golden. You may have already spotted him in the Metro this morning, his is one of the buyers of Pocket’s compact homes in Oak Grove NW2.
Thomas and his mum on handover day.
Thomas grew up in Brent and went to school in North Camden. His brother and mother both live in the area, and the family spend a lot of their spare time together. Thomas is a local key worker, and is likely to work locally for the foreseeable future. He’s always lived at home, but last year decided to move into rented accommodation with a friend.
He found that this was using up any of his income that he could otherwise have saved as a deposit. Faced with such high rental costs, he moved back in with his mother, and started looking into the option of buying. However, when Thomas began looking at the open market, he found that everything was out of his price range, and his only option would have been to move miles away from home and where he works.
Click above to watch a film all about Thomas’ journey to home ownership.
But then his mother spotted Pocket; it seemed too good to be true but, when he combined Pocket’s 20% discount with the government’s Help to Buy scheme, he realised he could just make it work. Pocket was certainly his only option of buying, and his mother went to the viewing day in his place because he was working that day.
She was so impressed with the Pocket homes that she called him there and then, and between them they decided to apply for a Pocket home. It was a nerve-wracking wait – there were only 13 apartments available and it felt like “it was a longshot, there was no way that I was going to get this”.
When Thomas got the email saying he’d secured a Pocket home, he was at work, so he couldn’t celebrate but was jumping up and down inside. We are delighted to welcome Thomas to our new Pocket community in Camden, and we’re looking forward to launching our next scheme in Camden later this year, as well as homes in Hackney, Lambeth and Lewisham. Click here to see all our schemes coming up.
Register now for your chance to get your foot on the housing ladder with Pocket.