A Boom in City Living

Lots of us have a romantic notion of what we want our home to look like.  In many cases, it’s an idealised vision of a country cottage with roses around the door, perhaps with a thatched roof, and hollyhocks growing in the garden.

While that dream might be the ideal for some people, for most it will be other things that are actually more important when it comes down to it: the location of the property, the living space it offers, and the quality of the build and the interior fixtures and fittings.

This is one of the reasons why we are seeing a boom in the popularity of new apartments created out of former city centre office blocks.  These of course will never have the kerb appeal of a country cottage; but what they lack in exterior aesthetics is more than made up for in the quality of life they offer.

City centre living is once again becoming fashionable.  People like the fact that they can walk to work, avoiding the rush hour traffic.  They like the fact that they can be home again in a few minutes at the end of the day.  They like the fact that all of the city’s leisure amenities are on their doorstep.

Whilst they may be willing to compromise on the roses-around-the-door pipedream, many are certainly not prepared to settle for anything less than a dream interior.  Increasingly these kind of developments are seeing really top-end specifications such as solid stone worktops in the kitchen, engineered oak flooring, built-in wine coolers and sophisticated LED lighting.  The watchword here is lifestyle, a rather more relevant factor for most people than a thatched roof!

All of these desirable attributes (minus the thatched roof, obviously) feature in the latest such former office building conversion to come to the market, Eastgate House on Thorpe Road, where 47 one- and two-bedroom apartments have been created across four floors.  The building is just a short walk from Norwich station and the city centre, and many of the apartments offer stunning city views.

Not only do these kind of conversions offer a good quality lifestyle, but they are excellent news for the city as well.  Taking out (generally) lower quality office space and creating good quality homes will help bring the city back to life.  Norwich currently has a real buzz about it, and part of that is the increasing numbers of people who are living right in its heart.

That’s the beauty of our county, and why it continues to attract people from elsewhere looking for a better quality of life.  Yes, we do have plenty of those idyllic country cottages, but we can also offer sophisticated modern city living, and it’s why Norfolk remains one of the best places in the country to live.