Westcountry housebuilder Cavanna Homes is preparing to begin construction work at four new sites across Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset, with a further ten sites in the pipeline.
The new developments, containing a mixture of open market and affordable housing, will be built in phases on sites across the South West, with demand for new homes expected to remain strong.
The forthcoming developments, which when combined will deliver over 700 homes, will be in Bickington and North Molton in North Devon, Beaminster in West Dorset and Wembdon in Bridgwater.
Construction work continues at the firm’s three developments in Exeter, and its communities in Bude and Holsworthy. Popular sites in Tavistock and Hemyock will be completed later this year.
In 2023, which was Cavanna Homes’ centenary year, the Torbay headquartered business recorded sales income of £54m, handing over 106 open market homes and 112 social homes.
James Stride, Director of Construction said: “Unusually we delivered more affordable housing than open market homes last year. However, this is an important contribution to help alleviate the housing need in the South West, and can only be achieved by developers and local authorities working together to build quality new homes.”
Cavanna Homes was praised in two prestigious industry awards in 2023. It made the shortlist in the annual Housebuilder Awards in the category ‘Best Design for Three Storeys and Under’, for the development Broadleigh Park in Tavistock. Cavanna @ Wolborough Hill in Newton Abbot was a finalist in the category ‘Residential Project of the Year (35 Homes and Under)’ at the Michelmores Property Awards.
Focused on strengthening its senior team, the firm appointed Alan Bray, Director of Commercial, Sophie Aylott, People and Culture Manager, and Hayley Mills, Head of Customer Services. Three apprentices were also taken on at the end of the year, reflecting Cavanna’s commitment to the next generation of housebuilding professionals.
Grayham Tucker, who became Group Managing Director at the beginning of 2023 said: “It was a privilege to join Cavanna Homes in its centenary year and steer the business through some challenging times, completing the year with a set of strong sales figures.
“The challenges, caused by external factors including increases in borrowing costs and issues around government housebuilding targets, are likely to continue through 2024 but I believe the great team at Cavanna is well-placed to deal with them.”
The whole Cavanna team came together regularly during 2023 to support Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) by way of a sponsored cycle ride, themed lunches, dress down days and raffles.
Since 2019 the firm has raised over £100,000 for the charity and in December it announced that colleagues had unanimously backed the decision to make CHSW its official Charity Partner.