SHOWCASE Croft Mawr in Dinas Powys is the host with the most

CROFT MAWR

Evelyn Green jealously explores this exceptional family home in Dinas Powys...

With electric gates and a sweeping driveway, the feeling of luxury starts from the moment you enter Croft Mawr’s grounds. Stepping into the fantastic reception hall with its Tunisian limestone floor, the scale and beauty of the home becomes instantly apparent. I can feel my upper lip tighten with envy because I will never live here, but I’m simultaneously taking mental snapshots of the décor so that I can simulate it in my own abode.

The spectacular family home is not only spacious and versatile but there’s such a feeling of privacy with the house standing in one acre of beautifully maintained

HOUSE NUMBERS Guide price £1.7M Square footage 4,955 Bedrooms 6 Bathr ooms 4 Gar dens Generous and beautifully maintained Where Croft Mawr, Pen y Turnpike Road, Dinas Powys, CF64 4HG Savills, 2 Kingsway, Cardiff; 02920 368 900; www.savills.co.uk

gardens that offer the duality of seclusion and farreaching views. You don’t feel cut off from the world – after all it’s only just outside Cardiff – yet you feel nestled in your own secure little section of the world.

There’s a luscious lawn with a nice variety of pretty plants, trees and shrub borders, and the enchanting raised sun terrace sweeps around two elevations of the property with unparalleled views over the Bristol Channel and the islands of Flatholm and Steepholm.

Inside, the room that I looked at with most covetous eyes was the kitchen, but having said that, even the cloakroom impressed me. The expansive kitchen has been beautifully fitted by the current owners and has granite worktops, a Crema Marfil tiled floor and a wood-burning stove. There is an ample bespoke central island and the breakfast area is spacious and allows you to do a dressing gown waltz over to the rear terrace for al fresco delights whenever you please.

Off the kitchen is a gorgeously large hall with plenty of natural light and doors to a stone-walled decked patio with views over the dazzling gardens. At the end of this

delightful hall is a spacious utility and separate drying room, because everyone needs a drying room.

The formal dining room, with its large sash windows, must have hosted many a dinner party during its lifetime; it palpates with merrymaking. This is a house you’d need to host Christmas in.

You’d have plenty of room to sleep your guests, too, as there are six very big bedrooms. In the master bedroom there’s a dressing room, countryside and sea views from the marvellous full-length windows, and a luxe en suite. The second bedroom features a dressing room and an en suite too, two bedrooms share ‘Jack and Jill’ en suite facilities, and the other two bedrooms share a whopping family bathroom.

And if guests wanted to work off their turkey, then it would be no problem because there’s an enormous fully fitted gym at their disposal. But, let’s be honest, they’re going to spend their time slumped on the sofa in the quaint living room watching Gavin & Stacey reruns while gorging on cheese. See you in December, yeah, Croft Mawr?

Showcasing the best stays in Wales

Chris J. Birch and Jak Bjornstrom from HAUS have teamed up with Moira Jones to tell us more about holiday stays in Wales

For most, missing out on your summer holiday was thankfully all we had to be concerned with during the last few months. But, with travel outside the UK become ever more diffi cult to navigate, the return to UK Holidays and weekend getaways is quickly coming once again.

Local Cardiff company owners Chris J. Birch and Jak Bjornstrom have teamed up with Moira Jones to bring quality and affordable Welsh holiday homes to the attention of the world through their purely Welsh booking platform: Holiday Homes Wales. We caught up with the three over the lockdown to chat about what Wales means to so many people.

Let’s talk about your business fi rstly. What brought you into the holiday home arena? Jak - We were searching for great spaces for a client through another company and, usually, the best spaces we found were also holiday homes. But they weren’t being marketed in the best way, so we all got together and decided to change that.

Moira - Holidays in Wales are so vital at the moment. Showcasing the best of Wales and attracting people to Wales with our fantastic attractions and epic scenery is a vital part in helping the recovery from the last few months.

Holiday homes are a great way to see the sights and not be restricted with hotel style rules. How do you guys operate? Jak - For us, it’s a personal service, so we visit each property ourselves and check it’s suitable, safe and styled for the guests that we tailor our company towards. They always need to be the best that Wales can offer and give our guest the best possible experience so they’ll return time after time.

And are you seeing that at the moment? Are guests returning to Wales? Moira - Oh definitely. We’ve been asked by multiple guests if they can come back. Because we have homes in Cardiff, Cowbridge, Saundersfoot, Milford Haven, Brecon et cetera, these guests can still book through one source but have a different place to stay every time. It’s benefiting our guests and our property owners too.

Speaking of property owners, how does that process work? Do you ask for people’s homes or do they approach you? Jak - It’s a little of both really. If we see something truly special and feel it fi ts well on our platform, we’ll ask if we can market it. But mostly, clients with properties they’d like to use as holiday homes approach us to market their homes for them.

Moira - Usually, they’ve tried Airbnb or other platforms and now they’re looking for an increase in revenue so they approach us. The best part of our service is we’ll market the home on 30+ platforms, including Airbnb, and integrate them into our own. So our clients’ homes stand the best chance of maximum occupancy. It works really, really well.

How’s the future looking for the company and its growth? Chris - At the moment, we’re exclusively partnering with booking.com, the largest property platform in the world in providing holiday homes in Wales and we’re bringing yachts, long boats, glamping pods, more traditional country cabins, lodges and more on board every week so things are really looking great. We’ll still be on the most popular platforms and our own, but we’ll have the backing of a property monolith to get our properties the best exposure possible.

And if people wanted to book a holiday home or add their home to your platform, what should they do? Jak - Our website has a fantastic system to book your holiday home directly with a secure payment system and we send a keyless entry code so there’s minimal human interaction for the purposes of the Covid-19 rules.

Moira - And if there’s a home that’s perfect for advertising on our platform, get in touch with any of us and we’ll pop out to meet you at the home and get the process started. ■

For more information, visit www.HolidayHomes.Wales

Open Haus

Chris J. Birch from HAUS tells us more about how they’ve kept their doors open during lockdown

The world of the estate agent has taken a few knocks in the last decade in Wales. From the introduction of stronger control methods including RentSmart Wales to the tenant fee ban, Brexit and now the potential recession on the horizon. These are unsettling times for some.

But not for the owners of Haus. This new, Private Client Estate Agency is about to open its doors to not just one, but two new offices during these difficult times. We caught up with co-founder Chris for a socially distanced coffee and chat on what motivated him and co-founder Jak to open their doors when so many were closing theirs.

So Chris, here we are in your new Cardiff Central offi ce on North Road and we’re surrounded by builders converting lighting and fi tters putting up signage. What’s motivated you and Jak to setup a Business when so many are closing right now? I can really understand what you mean, but honestly, the world hasn’t stopped turning. People still need to buy and sell their homes, people still need to rent out their homes and landlords still need a hand managing their properties. The business still exists, it’s just a little more challenging than it’s been in the past. Haus was started as a full-on estate agency in February but we’d been managing properties for several years before that. When the lockdown hit, we took stock, evaluated and pushed forward.

It’s a really bold move and I really applaud that. Tell me, what is a ‘Private Client’ estate agency? Where does the difference lay? Our complete aim is to maximise the return of a landlord’s portfolio. Having a dispassionate eye and a mind purely on the figures means we’re in the best position to look at a portfolio and see what’s best to sell, what’s best to renovate or convert and what’s best to switch from a regular rental to a short-term rental or holiday home. We work solely for the landlords’ interests. We give them the figures and the advice to maximise their rental yield and source good tenants for their properties. The ‘Private Client’ element is because we work for a select number of landlords. We always want to grow our network, but it needs to be done correctly and only when there’s room to fully manage another portfolio.

So you only take on landlords as clients? We have a fantastic array of clients. They’re not always landlords. Sometimes, they’d just like someone to sell their home for them or rent out their single property. The difference is that we take the time to look after the home and the client. They get an excellent write up when they’re up for sale as well as some excellent photography and viewings by video call or in person. It’s the care and attention to the property that brings clients back to us.

With so many estate agents closing doors, dropping staff numbers and being bought out by larger corporate entities, is there room for another agency? Well, we definitely think so. Being independent is key for us. We want clients to know that although we’re a company, we aren’t reportable to a larger entity, we work for our clients. I completely understand others who are downsizing, but they’ve had an excellent run at pulling high rates from their tenants and landlords through up-front fees and stealth fees, like charging contractors commission for work carried out on their landlords homes. People are wise to these tactics now and it’s forcing the less reputable agencies to rethink their approach. We’ve never been involved in those tactics and we came in after the fee ban, so everything we earn is earned correctly and, most importantly, ethically. ■

372 North Road, Cardiff CF14 3BP; 02920 100 742; www.Agency.haus