A Glasgow letting agency has won an award for the incredible difference it makes renovating neglected homes and renting them out to people on low incomes.
Homes For Good also involves an interior designer in their renovations, allowing tenants who were previously at risk of homelessness to create a home they feel proud to live in.
Two of those tenants are Ina and her 11-year-old son Svet, who escaped Ukraine after Russia’s invasion of the country. Ina and her husband are a renowned producer and film director, and their work enabled them to save up to build their dream home – but this dream became a living nightmare after the bombing of a nearby airport and occupation by Russian forces.
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Ina and Svet managed to escape to Warsaw and get to Glasgow, with Ina’s husband staying to fight for Ukraine.
They arrived in Glasgow in May 2022 and spent weeks living in a hotel room, until moving into their Homes For Good property in August. Svet’s room was decorated yellow – his favourite colour, and their new bathroom was almost identical to the one they had in Ukraine.
The Homes For Good team helped the pair settle in and provided essential furniture, welfare and benefits.
Four months on, Svet has his own mini piano and he enjoys playing and composing music. Ina spends time with the growing Homes For Good Ukrainian friendship group and, after joining a Ukrainian street football team, she became a captain and took the team to an international football tournament for women.
The letting agency's recent prestigious award win included £10,000 which will allow the agency to continue the work they do and renovate even more homes that would otherwise be uninhabitable, and the opportunity to share their knowledge and process at an international event in the hopes of inspiring more agencies to follow their lead.
Susan Aktemel, Founder of Homes for Good said: “We are absolutely thrilled and honoured to win this global award. Developing a new approach and business model to raise standards in the private rented sector has taken a huge amount of work and determination since we started in 2013.
"As we reach our 10th birthday, we still have significant work to do, and winning the Gold Habitat Award is a huge endorsement and motivator for us to keep going.”
Homes For Good was founded in 2013, to improve conditions in the private rented sector for tenants and landlords and to support, people on low incomes to access quality homes in the private rental sector.
It has since raised £20 million in social investment and bought and developed more than 330 homes, managing a further 220, and works with 130 landlords and 800 tenants overall.
The company decided to invest in their own property portfolio after their research found that just three per cent of 500 two-bedroom homes on the market were both affordable and accessible to people on benefits. The homes that were available were in extremely poor condition.
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