ONE OF OUR BEST DECISIONS
Meet Mark and Michele, a couple who radically reinvented their retirement plans after a chance encounter with The Lakes
It took just 20 minutes for Mark Bradbury and partner Michele to decide to buy a cabin at The Lakes. That may sound impulsive, especially as Mark spent nearly four decades making very carefully considered investment decisions. But far from regretting it, the couple have now also purchased a permanent home here too, snapping up one of the exclusive Manor Farm Barns properties to retire into.
“It’s one of the best decisions we’ve ever made,” says Mark. “It’s a good investment but also it’s a lifestyle decision. The Lakes is quite unique. As soon as you go there you know it – I’m sure there are a lot of people who have properties there who made snap decisions like mine.”
A well-travelled couple with nearly 100 countries under their belts, Mark and Michele were prompted by the travel curtailments of Covid to explore the UK more thoroughly, which brought them to The Lakes for the first time in 2021. “We first saw adverts for The Lakes around 2010 and thought it sounded interesting but I was too busy with a tech start-up at the time,” he says. “I sold out and retired in early ’21 and, as we couldn’t go on holiday, we decided to visit Bath. We saw another ad for The Lakes and they had a show cabin on Marley View, which had just been built so we said let’s go and have a look.”
“It’s one of the best decisions we’ve ever made,” says Mark. “It’s a good investment but also it’s a lifestyle decision. The Lakes is quite unique. As soon as you go there you know it – I’m sure there are a lot of people who have properties there who made snap decisions like mine.”
A well-travelled couple with nearly 100 countries under their belts, Mark and Michele were prompted by the travel curtailments of Covid to explore the UK more thoroughly, which brought them to The Lakes for the first time in 2021. “We first saw adverts for The Lakes around 2010 and thought it sounded interesting but I was too busy with a tech start-up at the time,” he says. “I sold out and retired in early ’21 and, as we couldn’t go on holiday, we decided to visit Bath. We saw another ad for The Lakes and they had a show cabin on Marley View, which had just been built so we said let’s go and have a look.”
Mark and Michele met head of sales James Hall, who told them the cabins were going to be advertised that weekend. “It was a Friday,” says Mark. “We looked around and it was fantastic. We didn’t realise a place like this existed in the UK. I said to James ‘what’s the deal on this?’ He said you can buy it and use it, treat it as an investment, or rent it out – and we run the whole process for rentals. After 20 minutes we said we’ll buy one. It literally took us 20 minutes to buy a cabin.”
The lakeside cabins on Marley View feature a double-height open-plan living and dining space, two double bedrooms, two bathrooms and a spacious outdoor Entertaining deck with large retractable doors that ‘bring the outdoors inside’. “It’s mezzanine floor with a bedroom upstairs with a bathroom, a really big living area with a very cleverly appointed kitchen, and a big terrace,” says Mark. “From an investment perspective, those are the places that get rented out first. People want to stay in the cabins. The bigger houses are really for families. It’s a different narrative.”
As soon as their own cabin was completed, Mark and Michele began both staying there and renting it out, and quickly discovered the delights of the Cotswolds. “The more we explored the Cotswolds the more we thought this is a beautiful place,” says Mark. “We’d lived for many years in Hampton, near Hampton Court, which itself is a beautiful part of the world, but then James sent me this email saying they were about to launch the Manor Farm Barns…”
The lakeside cabins on Marley View feature a double-height open-plan living and dining space, two double bedrooms, two bathrooms and a spacious outdoor Entertaining deck with large retractable doors that ‘bring the outdoors inside’. “It’s mezzanine floor with a bedroom upstairs with a bathroom, a really big living area with a very cleverly appointed kitchen, and a big terrace,” says Mark. “From an investment perspective, those are the places that get rented out first. People want to stay in the cabins. The bigger houses are really for families. It’s a different narrative.”
As soon as their own cabin was completed, Mark and Michele began both staying there and renting it out, and quickly discovered the delights of the Cotswolds. “The more we explored the Cotswolds the more we thought this is a beautiful place,” says Mark. “We’d lived for many years in Hampton, near Hampton Court, which itself is a beautiful part of the world, but then James sent me this email saying they were about to launch the Manor Farm Barns…”
The barns are a group of five original historic buildings on the north western fringe of The Lakes estate, neighbouring the Manor House and overlooking Bowmoor Sailing Lake. Their names – the Bakery, the Piggery, the Shepherding Barn, the Warehouse and the Rolltop – reveal the origins of each unique property. Mark and Michele saw the potential, and decided to buy the Bakery, a two-storey stone building.
“It looked very sad, because it was completely covered in ivy, but it came with a nice plot of land, and we submitted plans to make some minor changes, not to the overall shape of the barn, but to make it slightly bigger,” says Mark.
“We had an architect to help us modify the original plans, so it’s quite unique on the inside. One half of it has a glass wall that looks out on to the inside of the old wall. You get the idea. We’ve come in a little bit, and then we’ve gone glass storeys up, so whichever room you’re in, you see the stone. It was just an idea we came up with to make it unique, and then the interior design and everything we’ve done from scratch ourselves.
“It’s a unique part of The Lakes, because there’s only five properties on the estate which have 365-day occupancy. So it’s not a holiday home – we decided to come and live here.”
“It looked very sad, because it was completely covered in ivy, but it came with a nice plot of land, and we submitted plans to make some minor changes, not to the overall shape of the barn, but to make it slightly bigger,” says Mark.
“We had an architect to help us modify the original plans, so it’s quite unique on the inside. One half of it has a glass wall that looks out on to the inside of the old wall. You get the idea. We’ve come in a little bit, and then we’ve gone glass storeys up, so whichever room you’re in, you see the stone. It was just an idea we came up with to make it unique, and then the interior design and everything we’ve done from scratch ourselves.
“It’s a unique part of The Lakes, because there’s only five properties on the estate which have 365-day occupancy. So it’s not a holiday home – we decided to come and live here.”
Mark started out as a professional squash player but his sporting career was curtailed by knee trouble, a turn of events which led him to switch into the world of financial technology. He comes to The Lakes with nearly 40 years’ experience in starting, working in and running financial solutions provider
From an investment point of view, Mark says buying property at The Lakes is a copper-bottomed certainty. “They do appreciate, they already have appreciated,” says Mark. “It’s unique, and there are only going to be so many properties. There’s one or two other areas where you can buy property around a lake but they’re not as private. The Lakes is in a different category. I know people who are trying to buy on The Lakes but nobody is in a position where they need to sell. It’s a very protected investment.”
From an investment point of view, Mark says buying property at The Lakes is a copper-bottomed certainty. “They do appreciate, they already have appreciated,” says Mark. “It’s unique, and there are only going to be so many properties. There’s one or two other areas where you can buy property around a lake but they’re not as private. The Lakes is in a different category. I know people who are trying to buy on The Lakes but nobody is in a position where they need to sell. It’s a very protected investment.”
For Mark and Michele, the importance of sustainability is another key attraction of The Lakes. “Hopefully we won’t need to use the grid for anything,” he says. “We’ve got an air-source heat pump going in, all the heating, all the electricity, are generated by solar panels on the roof. With the planning permission, we had to install an electric car charging point – we may even buy an electric car.”
By the time you read this, Mark and Michele should be living at The Lakes – and it almost feels like a kind of homecoming for a well-travelled couple who have both spent periods of their lives living overseas. “John Hitchcox has created an amazing vision,” says Mark. “We don’t want to feel like we’re living in retirement home, which we’re not. We want to feel like we’re living in a vibrant community, but it’s still peaceful. We’ve got the bar and restaurant, which is brilliant, and all the facilities. The place is alive, and yet it’s quiet. It’s a great combination.
“I would describe it as a deconstructed hotel. You own a beautiful house, but you’re in a private area. You’ve got your own restaurant, you’ve got a farm, activities to do, tennis courts, pedal courts, all those sort of things, and concierge services, which are very good but very relaxed.
“I would describe it as a deconstructed hotel. You own a beautiful house, but you’re in a private area. You’ve got your own restaurant, you’ve got a farm, activities to do, tennis courts, pedal courts, all those sort of things, and concierge services, which are very good but very relaxed.
“I think over the last few years in particular, the landscaping has matured and the houses have ‘disappeared’. We just see trees. You walk around, and you see trees and maybe a glimpse of a lake and maybe a bit of a corner of a house, but you don’t see anything much at all. It’s really quite amazing how everything is blended into the surroundings of good landscaping.”
“When friends who’ve never been there before walk in and they look out at the lake, you just see the jaws drop – they say ‘Wow, where did this place come from?’”
“When friends who’ve never been there before walk in and they look out at the lake, you just see the jaws drop – they say ‘Wow, where did this place come from?’”