I come from a charity background, having spent years working in the charity sector managing teams supporting street homeless people access accommodation and other support for the likes of Broadway/CGL (change grow live) and The Terrence Higgins Trust. I was always keen for NestEast to support a worthwhile cause and felt LandAid raised awareness of such important issues and was the perfect organisation for NestEast to support, being the property industry’s charity.
Living and working in London, youth homelessness is something we see far too much of. It’s a very sad state of affairs that there are so many young people that end up on the streets due to circumstances out of their control. We were so inspired upon our visit to LandAid House. There is a vital need for a place where homeless youths can feel safe and be helped with the all important tools needed to integrate back in to society. The ambition of the project is immense and the initiative will create such a positive impact to the community, genuinely helping young people regain their lives and progress to a positive future.
As a property development business, revenues come at different times and it would have been challenging to donate a regular amount throughout the year. Transactional giving enables us to donate when funds are more readily available which is great for the cashflow of our business.
Our first donation has just been made which coincided with the sale of our latest scheme 15 Clapton Square. We committed to donating £500 from the sale of each of the 5 apartments to LandAid and are thrilled that in addition to the scheme selling we are able to support this fantastic cause.
15 Clapton Square is a listed building in a beautiful garden square that we sympathetically converted in to 5 boutique apartments. As the building was listed, the refurbishment had to adhere to strict and often challenging regulations imposed with listing status. We purposely kept to price points which allowed the development to be part of the government-backed Help to Buy Scheme which allows first time buyers to get on the housing ladder.
As well as other projects in the pipeline, we are working on a larger scheme of 9 loft style apartments and a commercial unit in Bethnal Green, close to LandAid House, which will be launching in 2019. We are looking forward to making a more substantial donation when the apartments are sold.
