A housebuilding veteran who has spent more than four decades shaping businesses across the East Midlands, is delivering his expertise to Derbyshire-based Casamia Homes.
Tom Finnegan has seen the market at its highest highs, successfully navigated its lowest lows and helped build two of the region’s most successful housebuilding businesses.
Today, he brings that experience to Casamia Homes on Pride Park.
A quantity surveyor by profession, Tom played a leading role in growing Birch Construction before its acquisition by The Miller Group.
He later co-founded Radleigh Homes, growing the business from scratch into one of the East Midlands’ leading regional housebuilders.
By the time of its sale to Redrow Homes in 2017, Radleigh was delivering hundreds of homes each year and had built a significant development pipeline. Tom served as Joint Managing Director throughout Radleigh’s growth and continued in the same Managing Director role following the acquisition by Redrow.
Despite enjoying a successful career with larger businesses, Tom always knew there would come a time when he wanted to help create another regional housebuilder.
He said: “Following the sale of Radleigh to Redrow, a number of the team I’d worked alongside for many years wanted to start something themselves. Dan was considering establishing his own construction business, whilst George and Danielle were keen to create a housebuilding business, bringing together their expertise in land, sales and marketing.
“It felt like a natural fit, but for me it was about much more than simply starting another business.
“One of the most rewarding parts of my career has always been seeing good people develop and go on to build successful businesses of their own. I was fortunate enough to help create successful businesses at Birch and Radleigh, and I wanted to pass on that experience whilst helping the next generation do exactly the same.
“Everyone at Casamia today is either someone I worked with at Radleigh or someone we’ve worked closely alongside over many years. Of course, we’re ambitious and excited about bringing new talent into the business as we continue to grow, but it’s also been fantastic getting the team back together. There’s a real sense of camaraderie.
“We spend most of our lives at work. I’ve always believed work should be enjoyable. Too often the fun has disappeared from the workplace and, in my experience, when people genuinely enjoy coming to work every day, they produce their best work.”
Having experienced several housing market cycles throughout his career, including the financial crisis of 2008, Tom believes the current market presents a real opportunity for experienced, well-funded SME housebuilders.
He said: “I genuinely believe there’s a real place in the market for businesses like Casamia.
“The larger national housebuilders are understandably driven by margins, shareholder returns and volume. That naturally means developments of three to thirty homes often aren’t their priority.
“At the same time, prolonged planning timescales, higher finance costs and increasingly challenging market conditions have unfortunately seen many smaller builders and developers fall by the wayside.
“For businesses like ours, who are disciplined, selective and in control of our own funding, it’s created a genuine opportunity to bring forward high-quality developments from inception, through planning and construction, right through to handing over the keys to our customers.”
Tom believes one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding housebuilding is just how long it takes before construction ever begins.
He said: “People often comment on how quickly houses appear to go up, but what they don’t see are the years spent identifying sites, working with landowners, preparing planning applications, overcoming technical challenges and securing a deliverable planning permission before a spade ever goes into the ground.
“Those lead-in periods are now longer than they’ve ever been. Delivering quality developments has become increasingly challenging, which makes successfully bringing them to life all the more rewarding.”
Casamia Homes is already delivering a growing portfolio of carefully selected developments across Derbyshire and neighbouring counties throughout the East Midlands. Its current developments include The Firs in Allestree, a collection of ten executive detached family homes with high-specification interiors and a wide choice of finishes and upgrades, alongside Black Fir Farm in Dalbury Lees, an exclusive development of three distinctive new-build barn-style homes. Both developments are now taking shape, with further schemes progressing through the planning system.
George Tyler, Land and Sales Director at Casamia Homes, said: “Tom’s experience is invaluable to the business. His knowledge of the East Midlands market, coupled with his passion for developing people and sharing that experience with the next generation, makes him a huge asset as Casamia continues to grow.”
Tom added: “It’s exciting to see both The Firs and Black Fir Farm taking shape. Although they’re very different in character, they both reflect the standards we want Casamia Homes to become known for. Every development is unique, but our philosophy remains the same – creating thoughtfully designed homes that we’re genuinely proud to put our name to.
“We’ve built a fantastic team. We’ve got some wonderful developments taking shape and an exciting pipeline behind them across Derbyshire and the wider East Midlands. It’s a business we’re all incredibly proud to be part of.
“It’s also been a pleasure working alongside so many excellent local agents, solicitors, architects, planning consultants, engineers, contractors and landowners. Housebuilding has always been a collaborative industry, and those long-standing relationships are incredibly important to us.
“If you’d like to have a conversation about a potential development opportunity, discuss land with future potential or simply find out more about Casamia Homes and what we’re doing, I’d be delighted to hear from you personally, or one of the team would be pleased to help.”
To find out more about Casamia Homes, arrange a viewing or speak with the sales team, contact Casamia Homes on 01332 498695 or email sales@casamiahomes.co.uk, or visit www.casamiahomes.co.uk.
