What it's really like to live in Citu's new eco Stall neighbourhood in Leeds, according to its first residents
When Pete and Jane Zanzottera moved into Citu’s newest eco development six months ago it changed their lives in some unexpected ways.
The couple had lived in the same house in Armley, Leeds, with their son and daughter for 22 years but last year they decided it was time for a change.
Pete, a travel adviser for a local government body, wanted a more eco-friendly home and Jane was keen to move somewhere with more outdoor space.
"For some time I’ve been trying to stop using fossil fuels but it’s really difficult to retrofit an old house,” says Pete.
“We lived in a beautiful three bedroom Victorian terraced house but to make it energy efficient it would have been expensive and we’d have had to take our house apart, which would have been pretty disruptive.”
The couple, who have a grown up son who lives with them and a daughter at university, began looking for more environmentally-friendly homes and came across the Climate Innovation District, the country’s largest sustainable development by developer Citu, which features high-performance, low-energy residences in Leeds city centre.
“As soon as we saw the Climate Innovation District we thought, ‘yes, this is what we want’”, says Pete. “We put a deposit down but then I had a chance encounter with someone from Citu at the UKREiiF property conference and they said this site (Stall) was coming on stream, which was much more convenient for us."
The Stall development, on brownfield land near Kirkstall Abbey, is comprised of 51 zero-carbon properties – 24 apartments and 27 houses – that have been designed to be as energy efficient as possible.
They are located along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and feature a “green corridor” that passes Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve and the famous Kirkstall Abbey. Each house has a rooftop terrace.
When Citu first announced the scheme, more than 1,400 people joined its database for the first phase. It has nine reservations in the apartment block and six reservations on houses that should be finished by July.
“We decided to transfer our deposit to here. We’d much rather be here than the centre of Leeds because of the community aspect,” says Pete.
The couple bought a four bedroom house overlooking the Leeds and Liverpool Canal for their family. They were the first people to move in last July and are still the only people on the site. Pete says one of his favourite features of the new home is the dual aspect windows.
“There’s something about looking out onto the towpath that’s different to looking out on to a street,” he says. “You don’t see any cars here and what you do see is people running and walking and cycling.”
He adds: “You’ll go out in the evening and see a fox.
“We have four swans that come up and down this stretch of the canal and the other day I saw something that looked like an otter or a mink. You’re definitely in tune with wildlife here.”
The family has an electric car but all three of them cycle most places or use public transport.
“Getting around isn’t a problem and most people wouldn’t need a car if they lived here,” says Pete.
As the only people living on the site, they have become a magnet for the curious. “We like to talk to people about it because it is a different life living in one of these houses,” says Pete.
The homes heat hot water using air source heat pumps and use Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation (MHRV) units to regulate the internal air quality and temperature. The MHRV units, combined with the high levels of insulation, mean that energy required for heating is around five times lower than the average UK house. The use of 100 per cent renewable electricity, as opposed to gas, significantly reduces the carbon footprint, whilst also equating to lower bills than the average home.
“We’ve been sitting in the house without the heating on during the winter and it’s been warm,” says Pete. “Most people put their heating on, it heats the house up, they turn it off and the house cools down pretty rapidly. That doesn’t happen here. I don’t think the temperature changed the first three months we were here. It was 20-degrees all the time. It doesn’t get too hot either.”
All the buildings at Stall were built at Citu’s factory at the Climate Innovation District. They are now in place on site. Four are finished, including a show home and Pete and Jane’s home. There is interest in the other two completed homes.
Jonathan Wilson, managing director of Citu, inset, says: “This development is smaller than our big strategic regeneration sites in Leeds and Sheffield. This was about diversifying our offering to the market, developing our brand to say that we’re not just here doing these massive projects, we’re also doing something differently in the suburbs.”
He adds: “We’re going to use this site as an opportunity to do some work with the universities on building performance and the consequential carbon of a place like this so we’re keen to get it finished this year.” Four-bedroom houses at Stall start at £450,000, with two-bedroom apartments listed for £275,000 and one-beds up for £182,500.