‘First-time buyers move from London to get onto property ladder in Bishop’s Stortford’

London commuters John and Michelle have moved out of the capital to buy their first home at Bellway’s Goodsyard development in Bishop’s Stortford.
John and Michelle, who both work in London, were given the keys to their new two-bedroom apartment at the development in July 2022.
They were previously renting in Wanstead, East London, and had originally thought buying a property was beyond their reach. It was only when they broadened their search to Hertfordshire that they realised it was possible.
The combination of Goodsyard’s convenient location right next to Bishop’s Stortford railway station and the spacious layout of the apartments available made it an attractive choice.
John said: “It wasn’t until the pandemic hit, and we were able to save that little bit more, that we realised stepping onto the property ladder was feasible. We originally looked at homes in London but quickly realised that was stretching the budget beyond our comfort zone”.
“We were in Bishop’s Stortford looking at other sites when we saw Goodsyard being built right next to the station. This caught our eye straight away as we both commute to and from London for work, so it was very appealing.
“We reserved our apartment whilst the building was still up in scaffolding. As we’d bought ‘off plan’ we obviously couldn’t physically view the apartment itself, but we knew this location would be well suited to our needs.”.
“We were impressed by the amount of space on offer for the apartment we had reserved, as our living space would be square, instead of long and thin like many other apartments we had previously seen online. Once we had our first ‘hard hat’ tour of the property during the construction phase, we knew we had made the right decision.”
Goodsyard has proven to be particularly popular amongst first-time buyers and those commuting into Central London.
John said: “Being located so close to the train station makes our lives so much easier. It takes around 20 minutes to get to Tottenham Hale and is only an hour door-to-door for work in Brixton, South London, which is surprisingly the same commute time as when living in Wanstead. If I ran, it would probably only take me a minute to get to the station from our front door!
“Another perk of Goodsyard is it has easy access to both the M11 and M25 which makes commuting across the country to visit different clients easy to do.”
Since moving in, the couple have settled in well to their new neighbourhood and love the fact that they are situated so close to the town centre.
John said: “Bishop’s Stortford is a well-kept secret. We are located right in-between the station and the town centre, which is ideal for enjoying all the great things the town has to offer. We are both foodies, so love going to the local pubs and restaurants. We are also situated close to London Stansted Airport – it only takes us around 10 minutes to get there by train or taxi, and our record from front door through airport security is about 25 minutes!”
John and Michelle also love the spacious design of their brand-new apartment.
“Now we’ve moved in, I particularly like the balcony,” John said. “It is large, enclosed and West-facing so we get the sun from 2pm until sunset which is perfect on warm evenings. We look forward to spending the summer out on the balcony, cracking open a few beers in the sunshine and enjoying our first full summer in our new home.
“Another perk of the apartment is that everything is brand new, and we especially love having a dishwasher as we’ve never had one in our previous rental properties – that really was a game changer!”
John and Michelle were equally as impressed with their experiences with the Bellway sales and on-site team at Goodsyard.
“We are both happy with the service received from Bellway,” John said. “The team ensured we were kept informed throughout the whole buying process, and any issues faced were sorted pro-actively and promptly”.
“It was a nice touch when we collected the keys and moved in to be greeted by a box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne as a welcome gift.”
John said he and Michelle would recommend Bellway to their friends and family: “The sales team went above and beyond what was expected of them throughout the process. The on-site team even went as far as to help us get our 8ft pool table off the delivery truck and into the building – if they weren’t there to help us, the delivery driver probably would have had to send it back to Italy!”
There is a range of one, two and three-bedroom apartments currently available to reserve at Goodsyard, priced from £260,000.
For more information, call the sales team on 01279 945851 or visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/north-london/goodsyard.