The word developer can strike fear into communities.

And rightly so.

It can mean commercial giants snapping up land and bulldozing lovely old houses to make way for monster blocks of flats, that make a lot of money but block the light and blot the landscape.

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That is not us.

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develop south east is a family firm run by people who are passionate about property. Building is in our blood.

And we like to preserve homes, where possible, and build new, sustainable ones that take their character from the existing local architecture and surroundings.

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We have been renovating and extending homes since the Nineties and are now giving up the day jobs to do it full-time. We choose properties with the potential to be beautiful family homes, draw up the plans, then project manage the best trades to achieve our vision.

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develop director Rory Bateman bought his first house at the age of 20. He has spent the last 30 years in the finance industry as a fund manager at Goldman Sachs and more recently at Schroders where he was head of equities and cohead of investment. Unusually, this is one financier who has always enjoyed getting his hands dirty and he has been instrumental in developing several properties during this time, with the help of various family members.

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His wife Alison and daughter Lois are responsible for property design and interiors, as well as company communications.​

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