Family reaps the rewards of homeownership dream at Lampton Parkside
Living near urban green spaces offers a wealth of health benefits; helping to increase physical exercise, improve air quality, and a place to socialise and spend time outdoors. Offering ample opportunity to reap the rewards of green space, the London borough of Hounslow has no less than 21 Green Flag awarded parks for its residents to enjoy.
For first-time buyers, Mhayk Whandson Da Silva Lima (36), his wife Alana Paola Soares Antonaccio (34) and their eight-year-old daughter Alice, moving into their new home at Lampton Parkside by The Hill Group, has not only realised their dream of homeownership in London but also placed one of Hounslow’s award-winning parks on their doorstep.
After moving to London from Brazil, Software Engineer Mhayk and his family rented a three-bedroom house in nearby Isleworth in 2019. Keen to get on the property ladder, they made a pact that they would own their home within four years.
We never thought that we would be able to buy our own home in London, let alone be able to have such fantastic amenities within walking distance. Hounslow town centre and underground station are just a few minutes’ walk away, I can hop on the tube and get to my office in Hammersmith in under 30 minutes. We honestly thought we would have to move out of the capital to be able to find the home we wanted and could afford – but then we found Lampton Parkside advertised on Instagram!
We had viewed a few other developments in the area, but we couldn’t find what we wanted and were concerned we wouldn’t find a property with enough space for us all. When we walked into the show home at Lampton Parkside it surpassed all expectations, not only in terms of the quality and size but having Lampton Park a couple of minutes’ walk from our front door, we instantly knew it was perfect for us. We purchased a three-bedroom duplex property, one of only six in the development, and we have a parking space – which in London is amazing!
It is such a lovely place to have so close to our home. I take my daughter there most days, Alice absolutely loves it. She can run around and use the play area, we can play tennis in the courts or just go for a walk together. I have also taken up running, and now regularly manage to do a 5k run in the mornings, which has been great for my health. It’s become a really special place for us, and we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
We are so happy with our new home, the internal finishes have been executed to a very high standard - much better than we ever expected. Being a duplex property, the layout is similar to a house, so Alana and I have space to be downstairs once Alice is in bed in the evenings. We also have a small garden and use of a residents’ communal garden within the development. Alana and I both work full-time and don’t have the time to dedicate to the upkeep of a large garden – so we have the best of both worlds – Lampton Park gives us the biggest garden we could ever ask for and we don’t have to do anything to it! Our property came with a smart meter installed which I have configured with my energy supplier app, allowing me to control our energy usage to keep our bills low. We also have underfloor heating controlled by individual room thermostats – the whole property is so well insulated that every room stays at an optimum 21 degrees, even when it’s been much colder outside.
We were paying £1,725 in rent and £140 in energy bills each month. The rented property was older and had a damp and mould issue, so we were having to put the heating on quite a lot. We now pay £92 in energy costs, £1,500 monthly mortgage repayment and around £15 less in council tax every month – that’s a monthly saving of almost £480. We honestly couldn’t be happier – we own a beautiful new home and are paying out less money!
The development itself is really friendly and has a nice buzz about it. We have made friends with our immediate neighbours; we have a WhatsApp group and have enjoyed getting to know new people. They have all been impressed with how Alana has styled and decorated our home. She has such an eye for detail and a talent for interior design; we bought lots of furnishings from Ikea, and she has done an amazing job making it look so beautiful. We absolutely love London, we really do feel very lucky to have been able to buy a home at Lampton Parkside, and we enjoy living here.
