Cash clinic: Mountain holiday home becomes pleasant alternative to daily grind
Date of publication: 01 March 2008
Writer: Melanie Wright
Two high-flying executives swap business for bricks and mortar, writes Melanie Wright
Fed up with the daily grind in Britain, Dean and Serena Pollen-Brooks decided to fulfil their dream of living abroad and five years ago started building a chalet in Chamonix, France.
They raised mortgages based on their salaries at that time, when they were corporate high-flyers, and two years ago the builders finished turning the property into a five-star holiday chalet.
Now it is let out through their luxury chalet company, Pollen-Brooks Leisure.
Mr Pollen-Brooks, 40, said: "We now have four properties in our portfolio. We own one of them and two others we lease from the owners and then re-let. With the fourth chalet, we act as agents.
We are now looking to focus more on the property developing side of things. We want to find existing chalets that we can knock down and re-build to our specifications.
"One of the biggest problems is that British banks are often reluctant to lend for property development overseas, and French banks aren't particularly willing to fund the sort of property development we are considering, so it would be interesting to know if there are any other credit lines we should look at."
Mr and Mrs Pollen-Brooks's company turns over a profit of between £50,000 and £60,000 a year. Most of that is reinvested back into the business and pays off debts, but the couple also take a combined salary of around £20,000.
The chalet they own is valued at around £2.5m. Mr Pollen-Brooks said: "We have recently remortgaged from Crédit Agricole to Barclays France and the mortgage is for €750,000 [£500,000]. Mortgage payments are about €2,200 a month. The mortgage is interest-only."
The couple also have a two-bedroom apartment in Sunninghill, Berkshire, which they bought six years ago for £220,000. It is currently valued at about £345,000. Mr Pollen-Brooks said: "We originally had a mortgage for about £180,000 but remortgaged to put more money into the business, so we owe £300,000. Mortgage payments at a discounted rate with Halifax of 5.4 per cent cost us about £1,400 a month interest-only."
As well as their mortgages, Mr and Mrs Pollen-Brooks owe about £20,000 on joint Gold and Platinum credit cards with NatWest. They also have a £10,000 seven-year loan with NatWest, with five and half years to go before it is paid off.
Mr Pollen-Brooks said: "I'm not sure what monthly payments are on this loan. I also have a loan for about €28,000 to pay for a vehicle and which I pay back at €700 a month. There are five years to go before it is paid off."
Neither Mr nor Mrs Pollen-Brooks is contributing to a pension. He has around £20,000 in a former employer's final salary pension scheme and she has around £15,000-£20,000 split between an Allied Dunbar personal pension plan and a previous final salary scheme.
Mr Pollen-Brooks said: "We are looking to clear some of our debts in the next few years so that we can move forward. We are contemplating developing in other countries in the future, and are keen that we always stay in control of our own destiny." The couple hope to send their son Luke to private school. Mr Pollen-Brooks added: "We would like to know if he is eligible for the child trust fund voucher."
For more information about Pollen-Brooks Leisure in Chamonix, please send an email to enquiries@pollenbrooks.com