We are delighted to be marketing two brand new Passivhaus properties, currently under construction in Hickling. These exciting eco properties, are designed to be good for the environment and extremely efficient to run. There is much interest in the development and it has just been featured with an article in the Eastern Daily Press and Great Yarmouth Mercury by Caroline Culot, the Business and Property editor:- Woman who said 'not in my back yard' to new homes builds her own instead When architect Fran Bradshaw and her partner Georg Herrmann heard about plans to build new houses next to her home she decided to take nimbyism to a whole new level. Fran, who lives in The Green, Hickling, wanted to design houses which enhanced the village and helped the environment. So she bought the plot herself and designed two 'Passivhaus' energy-efficient homes which are currently being built. Fran - a partner with a London architecture firm - is no stranger to a battle as five years ago she had to fight to get the plot and the type of house built to live in herself. She won and built her thatched passivhaus which combines traditional styles and cutting-edge technology. "A developer put in a planning application for houses which, in my opinion, were horrible and price maximising and I was cross about it," she said. "I thought 'was that really what people wanted?' So I matched the offer to buy the plot and have designed two semi-detached houses. "The houses will have rendered walls and pantiled roofs, are L-shaped, each with three double bedrooms, around 11,000 sqft of accommodation and outside, will have parking and gardens." The houses will use sheep's wool and old newspapers as part of the insulation and the entire structures, which come from Poland, have each piece numbered so they are assembled like a big jigsaw puzzle. Just like the award-winning passivhaus homes in Goldsmith Street, Norwich, the properties offer huge savings on energy bills for the occupants with the technology used keeping the buildings cool in summer and warm in winter. "These really are the houses everyone should be building." Fran added. "They give people a very even temperature. People are seeing it works with sensible, long-term savings." It's taken local, specialist builders, Sam Layte and Stuart MacCallum and friends only nine weeks to get the houses almost finished in basic structure with the project managed by Georg Herrmann, Fran's partner, who has helped her throughout. One house looks out over The Green and enjoys the sun setting and the other looks out over the rear of the plot to countryside. But Fran is keen to involve an interested buyer at this stage, so that the homes can be completed bespoke to someone's wishes. So, the houses are being offered for sale for £310,000 each, unfinished or £350,000, completed, with Aldreds Estate Agents. Contact Paul Lambert at our Stalham office for more information 01692 581089