Mark White, Managing Director of Hampshire-headquartered Bargate Homes:
55-year-old Mark White grew up on a Council Estate in North Baddesley, on the outskirts of Southampton. His parents exercised their ‘Right to Buy’ and still live in the same house.
With a natural ability for maths, a career as a certified accountant with the Inland Revenue was on the cards, but a Quantity Surveyor friend turned his head. Becoming an in-house mathematician appealed and at the age of 18 Mark became a Graduate Trainee for a Winchester-based general building contractor, where he gained a Diploma in Quantity Surveying and his RICS qualifications.
Following 6 years of working for a National Contractor, Mark joined a local company to head up their Design and Build team. In early 2001 Mark joined the Southern region of Linden Homes, which had its own autonomy and design style, operating as a small cog within a national business.
In 2006, Mark left Linden to help establish Bargate Homes – as their first employee. Following on from Commercial and Technical roles, he became the Operations Director in 2018. The promotion to Managing Director in 2021 was two years after the acquisition by VIVID – Hampshire’s largest provider of affordable homes. Due to the strength of Bargate’s well-established brand, it continues to operate independently.
Bargate is a 5* HBF housebuilder that proudly delivers around 300 new homes per year in communities that are within 45-minutes of its head office in Fair Oak, Eastleigh. The average selling price for Bargate’s family houses and apartments is £440,000. At the centre of the firm’s ethos is its ESG commitment. The team of 90 understands the need to continually evolve and improve the ways the company operates.
Mark has recently overseen the refinancing of the business, to increase its funding in preparation for helping deliver the ambitious target of the new government and has implemented procedures to align with the requirements of the NHQB.
For two decades, Bargate’s guiding principles have been to be better, not big, with a focus on doing the right thing, in delighting customers; not prioritising margins and shareholder returns. The firm rejects the malaise of mediocrity in new homes design and build standards, and sub-standard levels of customer service. Mark’s team is driven by a corporate responsibility to have a purpose beyond profit and be the brand that cares in a marketplace that seemingly does not.
Mark White is also the Chair of the Future Homes Hub’s SME Liaison Group, as well as being an active member of the HBF mid-cap group. He lives in Hampshire with my wife, 3 adult-aged and 1 teenage children. Due to his son having dyspraxia he is very passionate about helping local charities that support children with a variety of SEN issues in the community.
SME housebuilders need "leap of faith" to overcome current challenges
The aftermath of Rachel Reeves’ maiden Budget has resulted in small and micro housebuilders reassessing viability plans, states Bargate Homes' md Mark White
