Freeths responds to continued high demand for new housing

James Hart, head of the team based in the firm’s Nottingham office, believes that “the number of completed sales and the reservation levels for new homes reported by the likes of Barratt, Bellway and Taylor Wimpey in recent weeks suggest that people across the country are continuing to think seriously about the quality of their living space and the way they use it as we get used to a slightly different life after lockdown. While there are inflationary pressures in the supply chain, in common with other sectors, the decision of the Bank of England to leave interest rates unchanged suggests that borrowing will remain cheap by historical standards for the foreseeable future and there is no denying the desire of people in this country to borrow to invest in owning their own home. We are seeing exceptional demand for our services across the housebuilding sector and the right response is to invest in our team so we can continue to provide market-leading legal services to our clients.”

The firm has announced the recruitment of Holly Chadwick as a Senior Associate from Browne Jacobson, with a wealth of experience in both social housing and residential development, together with Zara Hussain as an Associate, from Glover Priest in Birmingham. They are amongst 13 lateral hires to join the wider Real Estate department nationally since the start of the year. This is complemented by a raft of lawyers who trained with Freeths who have recently joined the Residential Development Team: Lorna Trimble in March and both Dominic Bent and Ksenia Kavtaskin in September.

Patrick Adie, partner in the Nottingham team, said: “We’re delighted that the best and brightest young lawyers are choosing to join our residential development team – as a result of our outstanding reputation, the quality of our clients and the scale of our ambition. Housebuilding is an exciting sector to be working in but it is also the supportive, flexible and progressive working environment at Freeths that helps us attract and retain our team members and motivates them to provide great service to our clients.”

Sarah Rowe, who leads the team’s Social Housing specialism, added: “The expansion of our team and in particular the hire of Holly is due to recent tender wins, including Midland Heart and Torus and shows the firm’s ongoing commitment to the Social Housing sector.”