LiveWest and Westhaven Homes were celebrating after they were presented with the Best Rural Development award for their Thorverton house-building project.
Rural Housing Awards, hosted by Devon Communities Together and Devon Rural Housing Partnership, singled out the development as breathing new life into a rural community.
The Thorverton development consisted of 10 properties with a mix of shared ownership and rental properties.
It is the first development in the village for 40 years and was started in 2016 before the scheme reached completion in June this year.
Judges were particularly impressed that the material choices complemented the local aesthetics coupled with the spaciousness and high quality of the construction.
An emphasis was placed on the development reflecting an extension of the village rather than an estate with its own separate character.
LiveWest’s development director Nathan Cronk said: “The team at LiveWest is delighted that we, in partnership with Westhaven Homes, have been recognised for this award. Our development at Thorverton has helped us to provide local people with the opportunity to remain in this sought after village which they would otherwise be priced out of.
“The homes have been beautifully built by Westhaven with an interesting mix of materials and a range of property types - including bungalows.
“It is unusual to get the opportunity to build new homes in villages such as Thorverton and our customers are really pleased with their new homes - this award recognises a very successful project for everyone involved.”
Westhaven Homes managing director Simon Green said: “Westhaven Homes and our dedicated team are honoured to receive the Best Rural Development, in the Rural Housing Awards, for our Barton Meadows site in Thorverton.
“This has been our first project working with LiveWest and we are delighted that our development has achieved recognition for having a real ‘wow factor’ that made the difference against other leading developers.
“At Westhaven Homes we dedicate our time to finding the right location, designing our bespoke homes to complement and reflect their local environment whilst providing sustainable and beautiful homes for our customers. We are delighted that our development at Thorverton has been recognised as achieving these goals.”
Devon Rural Housing’s enabler Janice Alexander said: “We all felt that this year’s nominations were the highest we’ve ever had. Any of the developments could have won but the Thorverton scheme had a real wow factor that made the difference.
“The judges felt that the development had a real sense of spaciousness and was designed and built to a very high standard.
“The many different bespoke styles used also gave it a distinctive look and the homes fitted in really well with the local architecture and design. The judges were also impressed by the high sustainable standards of the home which is important for fuel bills and economy.”