A LEADING housing company scored an impressive hat trick in the first weeks of the football season at a new development in Redditch.

McInerney Homes West Midlands is creating 89 homes at Hedgerows in Greenlands Drive and decided, because of demand, to release all the 42 two-bedroom apartments on the scheme for sale.

Some of them will not be completed until 2008 but the company sold three within a week and have fielded heavy interest in the others.

John Heald, sales and marketing manager for McInerney Homes West Midlands, said: "Hedgerows is already proving to be a major success and the apartments have been particularly popular.

"We had a lot of prospective interest but did not expect to sell three so quickly.

"We were just pleased that Sky did not decide to show a Villa or Blues match live, so house-hunters were out and about."

A first-time buyer package has also been introduced by McInerney Homes to assist those looking to take their first step on the property ladder.