- 17 Russell -
Client: Hillview | Location: Wimbledon, UK
“The Faction are a professional team who we rely on for our CGI images. This helps communicate our ideas to obtain planning consent and later for marketing our developments. They provide both an excellent end product and service along the way.”
Over the past year, The Faction partnered with Hillview, to help them achieve planning as well as marketing and sales success for their newest development in Wimbledon, 17 Russell, comprised of 9 modern and high quality city apartments. Having already worked in Hillview's network on 2 previous projects, they had confidence in the services we could deliver.
Almost every property development needs to get over that first hurdle, planning. This is where Hillview first approached us for 17 Russell. Their goal was to get their primary planning choice approved and wanted imagery of this preferred design as they knew CGIs are an incredibly valuable tool to help assure planners. As they say, a picture tells 1000 words.
Getting approval for their primary design was rather important to Hillview as while their backup design, a pair of semi-detached houses, would’ve netted a break even on the land purchase, they would’ve missed out on significant profit. This capital gap meant communicating the scheme’s viability through a 3rd party right-to-light study as well as the visual accuracy provided by high quality CGIs would be crucial.
Hillview were also able to use our CGIs to help allay the concerns of neighbors and reduce the number of objections at planning. Helping others visualize the new development, as if it were already built, is hugely informative and allowed Hillview to introduce the scheme to the neighborhood, knocking on doors and informing them of the upcoming transformation.
A common objection in dense areas, and one that Hillview encountered were nearby neighbors concerned about overlook; “can this new development see right into my backyard?”. Hillview took this onboard and modified the necessary rear balconies with frosted glazing to minimize the issue and this could be easily understood from the image below.
In the end Hillview got everything they wanted through planning, and the project was ready to move on to marketing and take the next steps. Once again Hillview came to us to produce the marketing imagery that would help attract buyers and drive inquiries. As a development in one of the most desirable locations in London and aiming to sell the apartments fully furnished, the marketing imagery of Russell 17 needed to come across as elegant, sophisticated and match the exceptional standard of design Hillview had committed to for the final construction.
We worked with Hillview to meet these high expectations, providing them with our insight from previous developments and needing only a couple iterations before landing upon the final design visible in these images.
While the marketing goal of Russell 17 was not to sell off plan, CGIs were still crucial in driving inquiry demand as well giving potential buyers a piece of that first impression they get when visiting in person. As buyers only see the property briefly when they visit, CGIs and the brochure allow them to carry around a reminder of that strong first impression they can look back on at any time, rather than relying on memory alone.
Additionally, external delays to construction because of supply chain issues left Hillview facing a bit of a “what do we do” situation, because not all the apartments would be completed by sales launch. Rather than waiting and potentially being impacted by uncertain or unfavorable market conditions, Hillview felt confident in what they had between the 3 completed show flats and marketing materials to launch.
Within 2 weeks of going to market, Russell 17 accepted offers on 7 of the 9 apartments, averaging over £1,000sq/ft (£10,763sq/m).
Overall, Hillview are very happy about where they are right now with Russell 17. Between getting their preferred design through planning unchanged, and having accepted offers on 7 or 9 flats so quickly, with the first few apartments at asking price and then the next at a slightly raised price due to the level of interest.
The success of Russell 17 now allows Hillview to explore other development opportunities with added security. With how Hillview operated on this project from start to finish, we can’t wait to see what they bring to us next.