Have you ever found yourself driving down a tree lined road on the Hill or in Riverside, passing schools, cafes and boutique shopping and thought to yourself, “Wow, I wish I lived here!”? Only to turn your head and see the rows and rows of 60-100 year old homes and realized that you weren’t quite ready for the complicated, sometimes multi-year, renovation project that would be required to bring one of those homes up to today’s standards? Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with tackling a renovation project such as that (and Brost’s Renovation Division would be more than happy to help!) but in some cases, you can buy an older home that has fallen into disrepair for the same price as what new building lots cost in the outlying new areas. There is certainly nothing stopping you from having us knock down that old home and starting from scratch with a brand new, energy efficient, modern property that will occupy that beautiful lot for another 100 years.
This concept is called “infill development” and has been gaining some steam in the last number of years. If you travel to larger centers such as Calgary, or even comparably sized cities like Red Deer, you will see fine examples of infill development in many of the core areas. Often, these infill projects are examples of some of the nicest housing in those cities.
Certainly, infill development is a bit of a process when compared to building on a new lot but have no fear! The team here at Brost has ample experience with many infill projects under our belts and we would be more than happy to help you realize your dream. Are there any reasons to build in a mature area beside the obvious advantage of location? When looking at other centers, and even certain places within Medicine Hat, you will see that often infill sites are the best places to build something a little different than the typical homes built in new subdivisions. Whether you’ve always dreamed of building a modern, flat-roofed masterpiece or want to make your new home look like a 100 year old character home, you will find that it will blend more naturally in a mature location. As well, you will often find wider, more open building sites in mature areas than what can be found in today’s new areas developed under the principals of “smart growth”. Another reason to consider infill development is that, at times, the selection of desirable new lots can become picked over with very little choice properties available. During these times, expanding your search to places like the Hill or Riverside can turn up an absolute gem. Lastly, if you want to talk about being friendly to the environment, you can’t get much closer to true recycling than re-using developed land as opposed to a lot that was recently a farmer’s field or natural habitat!
We believe in this principal and are showing it, in fact our 2014 Parade of Homes show home was built on Harris Street in the Harlow neighbourhood. With the South Saskatchewan River valley right there, many mature trees surrounding and a walkable distance to downtown, we chose a fine lot for a fine home! There are many reasons why you should consider building in an older area, and we would love to talk to you about them.
