You may have heard new homes developers refer to the HBF star rating and wondered exactly what it means. In this article we explain the HBF’s customer satisfaction ratings system and how it is calculated.
And if you’ve asked yourself ‘who are the UK’s best house builders?’, Redrow’s top five-star rating is reassurance you’re buying from one of the country’s premium home builders.
What is the HBF star rating?
The HBF (Home Builders Federation) is the organisation that represents the new homes industry. Its members are responsible for building 80% of the new homes in England and Wales.
Every year the HBF collates the results of the National New Homes Survey - one of largest independent customer satisfaction surveys in the country - to calculate a star rating for all builders who are part of the scheme. This survey is operated independently by the NHBC and validated by Reading University.
The number of stars a builder is awarded is based on the percentage of their customers who would recommend them. To achieve the maximum five-star rating more than 90% of customers must answer ‘yes’ to the question: ‘Would you recommend your builder to a friend?’. The survey is undertaken nine months after a customer has legally completed on their new home.
An assurance of quality
Redrow’s five-star rating for customer satisfaction is reassurance of our commitment to delivering outstanding customer service and homes of exceptional quality. We strive to provide our purchasers with a joy-filled journey, from before they reserve their new home to long after they’ve moved in.
Redrow’s build quality stands out from our competitors for its attention to detail - such as the handcrafted period features of our Heritage Collection - and the high level of our standard interior specification, which includes high ceilings, deep skirting boards and taller than average windows and doors.
And we place just as much importance on your new home’s surroundings; creating attractive street scenes and planning our developments with large open spaces and pockets of nature where both wildlife and community can flourish.
While your journey starts from the first time you visit your chosen development, the excitement really begins once you’ve reserved your new home. As a member of My Redrow, the exclusive members’ area of redrow.co.uk, you’ll be able to track the build progress of your property, store all your important documents and choose any Redrow finishing touches to make your home your own.
Every home we build is a hand crafted product and the process of building a new house is a complex one. The aim of our site teams is to hand over a home to you that is 100% defect-free. However, on the rare occasion issues arise once you’ve moved in, we have robust customer service procedures in place to ensure they are resolved swiftly – which starts with your dedicated Homeowner Support area of My Redrow. You can be assured our extensive team of customer service technicians is on hand to resolve any warranty issues quickly and to the highest standard.
Going above and beyond
While the HBF star rating is confirmation that the vast majority of our customers would recommend us to their friends, statistics can only tell you so much. It’s the experiences of our individual customers that mean the most to us so we’d love share a few words from our home buyers:
Julie Wilde, purchased a three-bedroom Oxford Lifestyle at Blackmore Down in Dorset. She said: “When looking for our new home, we completely fell in love with both the development and the incredibly helpful sales team at Blackmore Down... Our chain collapsed a couple of times for reasons out of our control but Redrow’s sales team were wonderful when it came to handling this. It is thanks to them and their continued patience that we are now living in our dream home following a relatively quick sales process.”
Another purchaser of our Oxford Lifestyle property, Lewis Quarmby bought with his partner at Stoney Bank Chase in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. He said: “The level of customer care we’ve had from the sales team, the customer services team and the construction team has been fantastic. A marked difference from our past experiences. They were completely transparent, proactive and honest with us, which helped us to trust their advice, something that’s so important when buying a new home.”
In Cheshire, Mr and Mrs Lo fell in love with their Harrogate home at The Brook at Taylor’s Chase, making the 6,000 mile move to Warrington from Hong Kong. They said: “The thing that really sold the house to us was the customer service we received from the Redrow team. From our first visit the sales consultant was extremely patient with us and explained everything in so much detail, it really put us at ease.”
In South Wales, Alex Derby recounts his wonderful experience buying at Churchlands in Cardiff: “From the moment we first visited the Redrow show home, we knew the Leamington Lifestyle would give us exactly what we needed with plenty of space. Importantly, the quality of the build is really very impressive and we made excellent use of the My Redrow facility; choosing exactly what we wanted to make the home ours with lots of lovely finishing touches. Redrow haven’t been able to do enough for us and we couldn’t be happier.“
Fellow South Wales purchaser Emma Knapp bought at Mill Meadows in Caldicot, explaining: “From the moment we first saw the Welwyn show home, we were smitten. It really was love at first sight when we stepped in to the amazing kitchen. There’s just so much space and the build quality is superb. Moving house during Covid-19 was never going to be easy but the Redrow sales team were fantastic; completely understanding of the emotional roller coaster that we were on, reassuring us and remaining supportive throughout. We’ve been blown away and consider ourselves so lucky to now have such a beautiful home in such a great community.”
We also love reading our customer reviews on Trustpilot, where we have an overall ‘excellent’ rating, with an average rating of 4.5 / 5.
Trustpilot reviewer Darren McCabe, documents his purchase at The Mulberries in Witham, Essex: “Amy at The Mulberries has nailed Customer Service standards, nothing but professionalism throughout every call, email and meeting. Amy made the process less stressful and so was helpful even when we decided to drop in unannounced. Even now that we have moved in Amy still continues to be amazing. Cameron at The Mulberries is also amazing he is dealing with the snags on our house and he keeps us updated on a regular basis about where things are at. Nothing is a hassle for Cameron, his professionalism, customer service and can do attitude is just amazing and we are so lucky to have him looking after our property. Sam from the Customer Service department still keeps in contact with us to see how we are settling and has been a great support to help us settle into the house. So glad we have chosen Redrow and we just love our new home.”
Also writing on Trustpilot, Reena says: “Cannot thank you enough for my perfect new home and for your continued support after moving in! The entire team including Nalab and Dennis from Sales, Teresa from Customer Services, Paul and Ian from the technicians team have all been wonderfully helpful, supportive and considerate throughout the process…The overall team at Redrow truly made me feel very supported. Based on my overall experience I can 100% vouch for Redrow and would any day recommend them as a trusted home builder. All the best to the lovely team and thank you so very much for playing an instrumental part in my new home journey! Will forever be grateful.”
Thanks to all our customers who take the time to complete a survey and leave us a review.
