The Sunday Times

Searching for a home to buy off plans can rapidly become a depressing experience. Being presented with diagram after diagram of unimaginatively designed boxy little houses can be enough to quash anybody's dream of a new start in a new home, particularly with the accompanying "no changes allowed" mantra. Don't like magnolia walls? No changes allowed. Prefer a second bathroom to a fourth bedroom? No changes allowed. The few who succeed in buying one of Griffner Coillte's new houses are likely to have no such difficulties. In fact, this developer seems to encourage changes by buyers, in order to show off what it can do with its factory-built, timber-framed houses. You want a balcony on this side rather than that side? Not a problem. Prefer to have your kitchen elsewhere? Not a problem.