About CALA Homes

CALA Homes is a large British housebuilding company with their headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1875, the company aims to provide ‘exceptional design and build.’

CALA Homes developments

Millbrook Park by CALA Homes is a development currently listed on HomeViews. It features a selection of 92 one, two, three and four-bedroom homes in North West London. Mill Hill East station is in close proximity to the development. It carries Northern line services into the City and Central London. In addition, the A1, A406 and M1 are also close by. The M25 is also just over seven miles away.

CALA Homes reviews

“I would definitely recommend living here. I like the apartment – it’s good quality and well designed. The building company (CALA) did a great job – the finish was really high quality. The area is pretty safe. Our neighbours are all really friendly.” Verified resident, Millbrook Park by CALA Homes

Are you a resident at a CALA Homes development? If yes, please write a review here to share your experience with others viewing the development. Similarly, if you can’t find a CALA Homes development listed on HomeViews, we’d recommend reading similar reviews of other developments to gain an understanding of residents’ experiences in similar properties. You can also submit a new listing here.

Number of Developments

35

Ratings

4.17 Rating

Rating (based on 216 reviews)

Excellent

49.54%

Very Good

37.50%

Average

8.33%

Disappointing

2.78%

Very Poor

1.85%

Developments

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Showing all 35 developments

CALA Homes reviews

Reviews

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Showing 216 reviews

A lovely place to live

The estate itself is beautifully presented – communal grass areas are kept well maintained and the houses all have similar external designs, which offers a nice consistent aesthetic. The build quality is superb and the internal design is really modern and clean. Features such as shower heads, taps, ceramic hob, dishwasher, fridge etc are all good quality brands rather than being cheap and cheerful. Overall you feel proud when inviting friends and family over. Roads are brand new and not full of pot-holes. The sales team are very friendly and helpful and the after sales care carried out by the site manager is outstanding. Plenty of EV charging points on site. No issues in regards to building and property management. The main downside is how tightly packed everything is – if you have your windows and doors open in the summer you can expect to hear your neighbours and you’re also concious yourself of not making too much noise in order to be considerate, but this is quite typical of a new build estate and to be expected.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Fantastic access to Godalming town centre, train station and A3. Gorgeous pub with a beautiful garden just down the road. Two private parking spaces provided so parking not an issue, although like all new build estates everything is quite tightly squeezed together! Weekly bin collections. No traffic noise. No anti-social behaviour on the estate itself, but the surrounding estates are noticably run-down, so it’s quite an unusual contrast.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

None that I can think of!

What is the best feature of your home:

The kitchen leading directly out to the garden and in-built wardrobe in the Master Bedroom.

4
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
3
Value
5
Management
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We enjoy living here – it is well appointed and convenient and a strong community.

This development is well laid out with reasonable size gardens (for a new development) and plenty of open space. Buildings are well finished and the street layouts are quite imaginative, some streets are better than others. They could have done more with the landscaping though – it will take a long time for the relatively few trees to mature and the wildflower meadows may not thrive if the maintenance isn’t up to standard when the management company takes over from Cala Homes. It is a pity that the stormwater attenuation ponds were designed by engineers (with steep sides and fenced off) as they could have had much greater ecological and aesthetic value than they do. However the fact that there is plenty of open space gives a spacious feel to the development and encourages socialising – the spaces are well used already. We await to see what the large open space/park on the edge looks like when complete. Overall we love living here and would recommend it.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Benson has a strong community and is a very friendly village. It has enough shops for every day needs as well as cafes, two pubs, parish hall, play facilities and allotments. It is well connected, close to a larger town, Wallingford but also Didcot and Oxford, with good bus connections. Railway connections also not far away. Street is fine with plenty of parking. People are friendly and helpful. It could do with more trees though.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I would recommend you check the overall plans for each phase so you understand who your neighbours will be (rental, owned, affordable etc). Also future plans for adjacent land as there is a lot of house building going on in Oxfordshire on greenfield land so what is unbuilt now may not be in 5 years time.

What is the best feature of your home:

The property is well-designed and spacious, with good quality finishes throughout. It is also energy efficient and easy to live in.

5
Facilities
4
Design
5
Location
4
Value
5
Management
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As with any new build snags are plentiful but thankfully address through adequate after sales.

As with any new build snags are plentiful but thankfully address through adequate after sales. The home is modern and reflective of current build standards I.e. sound proofing groom to room floor to floor could be better. High ceilings and generous room size make for stress free living especially during lockdown. Local amenities are plentiful being surrounded by green space, local shopping and ready access to the town centre and motorways.

Unfortunately the property management company is perceived to give poor value and service and makes an art of leveraging penalty fees for cause by their lackadaisical approach to property management.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

Location location location easy access to motorways, green space and shops.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Storage is a must these days so always check that the property is sufficient for your needs in this respect.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

The property management company have made an art form of poor communication and inflexibility charged back to service users in the form of exorbitant additional fees in excess of the service charges.

5
Facilities
5
Design
5
Location
5
Value
1
Management
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New and disappointing

The garden is too small. The garden for five people living in a three bedroom house is exclusively insufficient for outdoor space for 3 children. The bedrooms upstairs are a ridiculous size. Only the main bedroom upstairs is with a good size but the rest of the bedrooms get completely overcrowded if you put one bedroom and one wardrobe inside. Bathroom and washroom are a good size. Building and propert managenent is completely absent because we have long term issues with the light at the parking lot and the communal areas in front of the house not being taken care of whilst we are Bing charged every month a significant fees for this. Since we entered our new house the floors upstairs and the the stairs is terribly squiking and there is not any noise isolation between the ground and first floor and between the rooms. It is almost the same as living in one big open card box. It is ridiculous that the lights in the open space both need to be on and off at the same time and you cant use it sigularly. There is also only one switch for the lights for such a big space.

Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:

There is only one local shop with unaffordable for average family of 5 prices. There are 3 pubs nearby so a good enough variety. There are 2 open spaces with cows and horses for the cow lovers e en thoug I’m not one my children are enjoying it. There are also many ducks and some swans during the winter showing up at the pond. A new bus stop was established next to our house but recently the number of buses has been significantly reduced by nearly 50%. At the beginning the buses were fine but nowadays there is only only one bus in the mornings between 8 and 10 which is really ridiculous as I can never get to worn on time. There is bin collection on my street but the number of the Bins does not reciprocate with the number of the habitats who are supposed to use them. Another disappointment is that there are no garden Bins and bare in mind that every house in that development has a garden and pays council tax that is over 3.5k pounds. The lamp that is supposed to work in our parking has never ever worked and there has been accidents in the dark because people cannot see the other cars when they park their own car including my car which was crashed into. The only good thing is there is no traffic noise. There is also no designated area for children cycling or ball games and children do those activities but on the roads without supervision which creates sometimes traffic chaos and is a hazard for a traffic road accident.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I did not like that we had no flooring on the second floors and stairs- this means we needed to be financially well prepared and to afford to live somewhere while the renovations of the already newly finished house were still going.

What is the best feature of your home:

The size of the open space downstairs is quite good. The fact that there are two WCs in the house.

2
Facilities
2
Design
5
Location
2
Value
1
Management
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These reviews are the subjective opinion of a HomeViews member and not of HomeViews

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