We may have a site!
We are delighted to announce that a site is being bought by our developer on which we hope to build our new Suvana Cohousing Community!
It is in the new town of Northstowe, just 9 miles north of Cambridge, with excellent cycle paths and transport links to the city and on to London.
Our plot will be just one block from the new town centre, and only two or three minutes’ walk from a lake on the edge of the site which has bird hides and more lakes and countryside close by.
Currently 27 dwellings are planned for Suvana, with additional shared community space (the common house). The intention is for homes to be available to move into by spring 2027.
We would like to hear from you if you would like to be part of Suvana at Northstowe.
A group of Suvana cocreators recently visited the site, pictured below.
What is Suvana?
Suvana Cohousing Community is a new way of living together. Where individuals and families can live, learn, and do Buddhist practices together. The space will be designed for shared resources, building sustainability and resilience with supportive neighbours.
What is co-housing?
Cohousing communities are intentional communities, created and run by their residents.
Each household has a self-contained, private home as well as shared community spaces. Residents come together to manage their community, share activities and regularly eat together.
Is this for you?
Cohousing offers a way of living together in a community which gives more flexibility of lifestyle than the established models.
We’re building a residential community where you can live as a couple, raise a family, or simply have more space to yourself while still being part of a close-knit community.
You don’t need to call yourself a Buddhist to be part of this new community! It’s for people who want to live on the basis of the Buddhist values of kindness, generosity, simplicity, truthfulness and mindfulness.
Read about our vision.
As well as the usual shared resources of a cohousing community, we hope to have a shared shrine room.
Watch a conversation about Suvana.
Project momentum
The project currently has significant momentum. We’re working with architects (Mole) and property developers (Town) who partnered before to create the award-winning Marmalade Lane community, plus a number of other cohousing communities.
Two of Mole’s architects are Buddhists themselves (with Triratna) so they understand the kind of community we want to create. We have a verbal agreement with Town and Mole to work with us on designing the development, though it is dependent on enough of us wanting to be part of it.
The development will cost around £10million+ for around 27 homes for the community. We’re exploring ‘mutual home ownership’ as a financial model to fund the development and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.
Mutual Home Ownership
MHO is a new way of owning a stake in the housing market. It is designed to bring the bottom rung of the property ladder back within reach of households on modest incomes in areas where they are priced-out of the housing market. It is also designed to remain permanently affordable for future generations.
Mutual Home Ownership treats living in a home and its value as a consumer durable. It does not treat a home as a speculative capital investment. It treats a home like a long-life car or washing machine that has a value to the user for each year of durable life.
Instead of owning an individual property, or a percentage share of the value of an individual property, residents own equity shares in a mutual property trust owned by them and other residents.
Read CDS Consumer’s Guide to Mutual Home Ownership
Using this model may be more financially viable for you than other models of owning – or part-owning – property.
Another benefit of the MHO approach is that under 40s are eligible for a 20% discount on property prices, and they may not need as much deposit or income as building societies might require. This is great as we want to offer younger people and families a secure home.
Northstowe
There are currently 1400 homes built as part of Phase 1 of this new town which is just north of Cambridge.
The plot that we are interested in is part of Phase Two which also includes the town centre development.
By the end of Phase Four, there will be 10,000 new homes, eight schools and 50,000 sqm of commercial space.
The area is surrounded by lots of nature, including waterparks. It’s also well connected, with good transport links into the centre of Cambridge nine miles away, and with established cycle paths.
Interested? Become a co-creator!
If you are interested in joining in with this community, the best way to do so is to join the 36 other households who have signed up to become Suvana cocreators!
We are co-creating the project now, shaping all aspects of the development to be somewhere we all want to live together.
Becoming a cocreator enables you to find out more (including likely prices!) and work together to create our new homes and community. It also means you get the pick of the homes, as they will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis in the order of your household’s cocreator joining date.
If you would like to find out more, arrange a conversation with Suvana Chair Tejasvini. She’ll be able to help you decide if being a cocreator might be the next best step for you.