Meet our homeowners: Paul & Jill from Esprit

Paul & Jill are proud new homeowners at Esprit in  Poole Town Centre. They purchased their modern apartment through the Platinum Skies shared ownership scheme and looking forward to exploring Poole and the surrounding areas again.

How did you hear about Platinum Skies?

“We heard about Platinum Skies through Facebook.”

Jill: “Yes, I saw adverts coming up on Facebook because I was looking at different alternatives. We also heard quite a lot of radio advertising because they were building a site in Sherborne, which is where we lived.”

Why was now the time to become Platinum Skies homeowners?

“We were looking at, with our current age at the moment, looking to the future and future-proofing basically so we had a bit of a plan to future-proof our lives, and this just happened to be a good time and a good deal and it kind of worked out for us very well.”

What do you think of Esprit?

Jill: “I feel like we have always been here. We settled in very quickly.”

What is the community like at Esprit?

“Neighbour-wise, because of the lockdown, we haven’t had the opportunity to meet with others as you would normally but the event last week obviously helped with that as we bumped into people that we’d never met so that was quite useful.

Jill: “They are all very nice and very welcoming. We haven’t come across anyone who hasn’t been friendly. It makes us laugh because they call us the youngsters but I’m retired and Paul’s coming up for retirement, so we don’t consider ourselves to be youngsters. But it is nice that they think that we are younger than them. But it is all age groups really so it’s absolutely fine. We’re enjoying it. I think the apartment speaks for itself as soon as we saw it we thought that, yes, it was just perfect for us.”

What was it particularly about Esprit that appealed to you? And why did you decide that now was the time to move?

“We have lived in Poole before so we had an idea of the area. We came and were met by Louise who came out to greet us. We were brought straight up here but we had an idea of the plans here anyway.”

Jill: “It’s definitely more modern here than we were expecting. We did look at Chapters which is beautifully modern but maybe not quite as trendy as this apartment was with the floor-to-ceiling windows in here. We just took one look at it and thought ‘Well, this is just lovely for us.’

“We were living in a cottage before in Somerset and that just seemed lovely at the time – We had seven lovely years there – but it was dark, and this has just given us a new lease of life having all this light coming in. It’s lovely.”

What’s the best bit about being a homeowner at Esprit?

I would say that the best bit about living here is probably this apartment. We picked this biggest and we have the most outside space, so I think for us it’s this apartment. It’s close to town. I’m 20 minutes away from work, as opposed to over an hour. The doctors, dentist, pharmacy and the hospital are in walking distance.”

Jill: “We have got the coast and Poole Park. This morning we went to Mudeford in Christchurch. Who wouldn’t love all of these areas? And as I mentioned before, we are equidistant between our three children, which is really handy because we childmind on a Monday and Tuesday. It just works really well.”

Had you heard of Older Person’s Shared Ownership before? What does that offer you in terms of peace of mind for the future?

“Our youngest son had done shared ownership before so we understood it and it did him a lot of good with his property that they bought and then sold and move on. It works well because you can buy more for your money.”

Jill: “And also for our children there are also all of these bolt-on things that we can do health-wise and help-wise in the future. For me, I think that’s brilliant as I do not want to be an incumbence on anybody. I really like to be independent, both of us are like that, and if we need help in the future, and I am sure that we will, sooner rather than later the way we are going, it’s just nice to know that we can add bits on and have the help that we need without having to run to family every five minutes because they have all got their own lives. I think it helps them to know that we have that.”

Is there anything that surprised you about Esprit?

“I think the fact that you can live independently. I think we are quite young-thinking for a couple. I would be horrified if I ever thought that I was heading towards a retirement home and so would our children. I still think of being in my thirties in my head so I would hate to label myself as being in a retirement home, but you can take or give as much as you want. If you wanted to never see anybody it would be absolutely fine but it’s just nice to know that they’re there and we can join in with what they’re doing but you don’t have to. Actually 99-per-cent of the time we live in our little cocoon here and it’s lovely. We’re really happy here.”

Would you recommend becoming a Platinum Skies Homeowner to your friends?

We would definitely recommend Platinum Skies to our friends and family. What we get for our money is brilliant plus with the shared ownership scheme it gives you more property, as long as you can afford the other costs, it’s a win-win.”

Come and experience Esprit in Poole Town Centre for yourself

Prices at Esprit start from £105,000 for an apartment, based on the buyer paying 50% of the property’s full market value. The homes at Esprit are made affordable as part of a government-backed shared ownership scheme delivered in partnership with Homes England.

Make an appointment to come and view an apartment at Esprit, call the team on 0808 253 0177.