The first new residents have moved into Bargate Homes’ £97m Heritage Place development, which is positioned within Hampshire’s 120-acre North Stoneham Park neighbourhood. The Balicao family has moved from nearby Southampton to be able to walk to the school attended by seven-year-old Christian. 

Heritage Place is the final phase of the wider North Stoneham Park development, where a new 315-place primary school opened in 2020. Built on a former deer park on the outskirts of the sought-after town of Eastleigh, Bargate Homes’ scheme is delivering the last 322 of the 1,000 new homes. 

The Balicao family has moved into a four-bedroom detached ‘Oak’ house design, where both the large kitchen/diner, and the separate living room have French doors leading out to the private garden. There is also a separate utility and cloakroom located off the spacious hallway. Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, a family bathroom, and a luxury ensuite off the principal bedroom. All homes at Heritage Place are EPC-B rated, enabling residents to benefit from a lower carbon footprint, energy savings, and access to Green Mortgage rates.

35-year-old Kirsty and 43-year-old Mike both work for Kingfisher plc, located in nearby Chandler’s Ford. For peace of mind, they opted to fix into a new five-year mortgage term.

Kirsty Balicao, a Heritage Place resident, said: “We were delighted when our son Christian was offered a place at Stoneham Park Academy. He was part of the first intake of pupils, nearly three years ago. The two-mile journey from our previous home in Southampton was fraught with traffic, so when we saw Bargate’s plans for Heritage Place, we felt this could be a great opportunity to upgrade from our three-bedroom 1920s house, which had a layout that didn’t suit our family needs.

“Moving here has been wonderful. Our home is in a small cul-de-sac, with other families with similar-aged children close by. Our garden is considerably larger than we ever expected from a brand-new home, but we also feel comfortable with letting the children play out the front, because it’s so quiet. It’s such a welcome change from living on a busy road. We are now in the healthy routine of walking to and from school in all weathers, and we are enjoying the country walks through the woods on the weekends too. 

“We rarely had people over to our old house, but we love entertaining at home now. The spacious hallway, beautiful kitchen and bathrooms, and all the quality details create such a wow factor. As we both frequently work from home, it’s ideal to be able to use both spare bedrooms as home offices, as well as having the option of hosting friends and family overnight.

“When we first moved in, we were really pleased with how low our estimated energy bills were, and having an EV car charging point already installed is a big win. Living in a really efficient, low energy home was a big reason for moving here, and we’re all so pleased we did!”