Eagerly awaited new ‘housey hub’ website A Passion for Homes was launched by business partners Jo Ridout and Andrea Morgan, on Thursday 14 February to an audience of TV celebrities, journalists, property experts and retailers, including TV presenter Laura Hamilton, Sian Astley from Channel 5’s Half Built House, interior design magazine Livingetc, Dwell, Nest and Alison at Home.

The event was introduced by Kevin Green, the self-made millionaire and one of the stars of TV’s Secret Millionaire and Secret Interview programmes. Mr Green, the biggest private sector landlord in the UK, commented, 

‘It strikes me that Jo and Andrea are hugely passionate about their new website venture. They have seen a gap in the market and the enthusiasm they have for the project shines through.’

A Passion for Homes is a new ‘housey hub’ that includes interior design, architecture and buildings, home product trends, news, celebrity interviews, fantasy homes, and estate agent and show home searches, A Passion for Homes is the one-stop website for people across the world passionate about property. In addition, it allows visitors to the site to share their home designs and property stories in a dedicated sharing area.

This exciting new website has attracted the attention of some of the most significant companies within the property industry even before its launch, including Rightmove, A Place in the Sun, and New Homes for Sale, who are powering relevant sections of the site as partners.

Rightmove’s Social Media Manager, Sarah Brown, comments:

“A Passion for Homes looks like an ideal place for the British home-moving public to supplement their property fix, and we look forward to continuing to working with them.”

“It’s good to see someone follow their passion and create an exciting new business venture from it”, comments Andy Bridge from A Place in the Sun, “A Passion for Homes have got insight, opinions and a great eye – this next step is well worth watching.”

Mark Russell, PR and Social Media Manager at Dwell adds,

“Dwell are really excited about A Passion for Homes. It’s great to find a website that has such an interesting back-story, and that is for consumers by consumers. It is an excellent un-bias platform for people to get real hints and advice by real people. I love that the website gives people a space to expand their creative side and inspire others, as well as be a place to seek inspiration – which we at dwell are all about.”

A Passion for Homes are two property obsessed women who set out on separate career journeys but ended up combining their property passion to share with the world via the new website.

Jo Ridout and Andrea Morgan are based in South Wales, and see the recent launch of A Passion for Homes as just the start of the development of the business,

‘It is challenging developing a start-up business in a recession, but nothing has stopped our enthusiasm and the support we have had from individuals and companies has been incredible’, says Jo, ‘This is the first phase of the website and we plan to continue expanding it in response to visitor feedback. ‘

‘The ethos of our business is building genuine relationships, sharing information and sharing our love for all things property, homes and design’, continues Andrea,

‘We are not property experts, we are property consumer experts. We offer visitors to our site a wide variety of stunning properties and interior design slideshows, advice and tips from experts, amazing human stories, product and interior trends, celebrity interviews (Kevin McCloud and Craig Phillips are on the site at the moment) and the opportunity to share their photos on the site too. We offer our business clients a bespoke pick and mix menu of services which includes opportunities to appear on the website.’

‘We are extremely grateful to many people for their assistance with the launch, including London based estate agents Chesterton Humberts, especially Lucy Tinkler, property PR expert Charlotte Ashton, and Sunflower Corporation. Davina Merola from Space-Alchemy Interior Design, turned the office space into a beautiful and contemporary space, with beautiful furniture, and pieces of modern art including giant apple sculptures, kindly supplied by Muralto, interior design and home product studio.

‘The Garden Gallery, which exhibits and sells contemporary sculpture, ceramics, glass and furniture for gardens and interiors, kindly organised stunning sculptures by Peter Newsome and Mark Beattie to be displayed in the property’s courtyard and inside the launch space.’

The feedback from Twitter has been extremely positive;

‘As an agent who sees many properties, it takes a lot to impress, I must say, I’m impressed! Great site, plenty to browse and all very interesting, will keep returning.’ says Richard Morris, from Hartleys Estate Agents in the Midlands.

‘Just been to your site and impressed, nice looking site and good content.’ adds the BMV Facebook Group.

‘Congratulations on the launch of the website, really well presented and thought out’, continues Kemp & Co, based in West Dorset.

The launch of A Passion for Homes was on Thursday 14th February at a converted Victorian warehouse, now a private residence, in the Tower Bridge area of London.