For some, retirement plans remain dreams and never come to fruition.
However, one couple – Sylvia and Nick Jones – made theirs come true by moving to North Devon, where they’d spent many summers on holiday.
Sylvia, 67, and Nick, 72, are now celebrating their 50th year of marriage in their new Bovis home at Bay View in Northam, thanks to the Home Stepper scheme.
Sylvia, a retired care manager, and Nick, a retired manager at an engineering company, have two children and seven grandchildren.
Commenting on their experience, Sylvia said: “We previously lived in Leicestershire and had a caravan holiday home in Fremington. We absolutely adored our vacations and spent so many summers enjoying the beautiful location – always saying that we’d retire to North Devon one day. We love it down here; it’s always felt like home to us.
“During covid, Nick kindly isolated in Fremington to protect those I was caring for and our son and his family also relocated to North Devon. We’d been helping them house hunt and it definitely gave us a nudge to start looking for ourselves.
“We sold our three bedroom detached house in 2021 and moved to our holiday home while we continued searching. We looked in Braunton, Barnstaple and Fremington, but as soon as we visited Bay View, we kept coming back to Northam – it was just what we were hoping for.
“We really liked the Hazel housetype but the two properties we’d seen had both already sold. Fortunately for us, one unexpectedly became available again and we were all stations go!
“We moved in October to our three bedroom semi-detached Hazel home, we absolutely love it and it provides us with plenty of room for our grandchildren to stay.
“We have a nice sized garden, a fantastic open plan kitchen and a large main bedroom – it suits us perfectly and feels like the house has been personally designed for us!
“The location is incredible, it’s such a stunning part of the world. We can walk to the beach, and it’s close to Barnstaple and Bideford. Nick plays golf and is a member of the golf club, while I enjoy reading, and we both like going on long walks and exploring the area.
“We couldn’t have moved without Home Stepper though, it’s helped us enormously.”
Working in partnership with Sage Homes, Bovis Homes is offering the shared ownership scheme on selected homes at the development.
Sylvia added: “We hadn’t heard about Home Stepper before but Millie, the sales consultant, really helped us and explained how it worked – by paying a low rent on half of your home and a mortgage on the other half. We were surprised how simple everything was, we had no issues at all and it enabled us to afford a bigger property.
“We can’t thank the team enough, everyone has been brilliant. It was always a pipedream to retire down here and I’m so proud that we made our dream a reality in time for our 50th wedding anniversary. It’s the ideal place to live and enjoy our golden years.”
Area sales manager, Beverley Rickard, commented: “It’s easy to do the maths yourself and think owning your own home or affording the space you need is out of the question, but Home Stepper really can help.
“We’re delighted Sylvia and Nick are settled in their new home already, celebrating their wedding anniversary and enjoying their retirement together. There is something very special about North Devon that makes it difficult to leave, it’s a wonderful place to call home and we hope they are very happy here.”
The site manager, Ollie Smart, won a coveted NHBC Pride in the Job Quality Award for building homes of exceptional quality at Bay View.
When complete, the development will feature 130 properties, along with attractive areas of green open space and a play park, right by the sea.
Located in an elevated position just off Bay View Road, the development looks towards Barnstaple Bay and Lundy Island, with Bideford, Clovelly and Westward Ho! a short distance away.
