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WORDS BY ZOE DARE HALL
When the world is your oyster, why stay in the UK? These three British couples agree…
EVERY THREE MINUTES, A BRIT MOVES ABROAD. That means in the next five years, another million are set to join the six million who have already started new lives overseas. And after 2007’s absence of anything that could be identified as summer in the UK, that could be a conservative estimate.
Last year, the property-mad British nation spent nearly £20 billion (€28 billion) on overseas property. And in the month following the rain-sodden summer, the number of buyers surged by 26%, as witnessed by the foreign exchange company Moneycorp. Another survey by Yorkshire Bank found that bad weather had driven 43% of those interviewed to consider buying a place in the sun, with nearly half of them citing Spain as their holiday home location of choice.
“Despite uncertainty in the UK economy and a strengthening Euro driving up costs to buy in the Euro zone, we have seen continued growth in numbers of people looking for second homes abroad,” explains James Hickman from currency exchange company, Caxton FX: “A poor British summer has encouraged large numbers of UK home owners to search for second homes in warmer climates, particularly France, Spain and Greece.”
In full flow for the ski season in Chamonix are James and Antonia Carpenter, both 37, who run a catered chalet (www.. antjamski.com) in the French ski resort. “Four years ago we felt we wanted a new challenge,” says James, a former area manager for Pizza Hut.
The Carpenters sold up in Beckenham, Kent, and bought a €1.4m chalet a few minutes from Chamonix’s historic town, with five ensuite bedrooms that they rent for €350-€770 per person, per week, in winter and from €55 per night in summer.
“Chamonix is only an hour by motorway from Geneva airport so it’s easily accessible, with no tricky mountain passes to negotiate,” says James, “and it has good summer and winter trade, so there was the option to live there all year round.”
 There is also a lively summer scene, with tourists using the cable cars to go hiking and mountain biking, and many others who come to climb nearby Mont Blanc. “We were full to bursting this summer, last year was excellent too, and 2008 is pretty much booked up already,” says James. “It’s hard work but we knew it would be and we’re both used to looking after the public in our previous jobs. Antonia speaks good French, which helped oil the wheels when we first moved here and needed to find good French lawyers and notaries.”
While James concedes that it’s misleading to compare their old energy-sapping routine in London’s commuter belt with life in a wealthy holiday resort, the quality of life in Chamonix makes them never want to return. “It’s a fantastic place to bring up children and we ski four days a week,” says James. “We have no regrets about leaving Britain.”
 Lesley and Julian Singleton, both former electronics engineers, realised that the climate of south-eastern Spain’s Costa Calida was more conducive to incorporating their passion for teaching watersports into their everyday life, than it was living in their home in Lymington, Hampshire.
The couple had been visiting the area since 2003, when they bought a holiday apartment in Los Alcazares for €175,000. When the two existing watersports operators on the Mar Menor closed down, the couple spotted a business opportunity and moved there in 2005.
“Now we’re the only English water sports operator (www.aqua-adicta. co.uk) in the area, providing sailing, windsurfing and watersports instruction for the holiday sports club at La Manga,” says Lesley, 41.
 They live in a four-bedroom detached house, which cost €480,000, near the beach at Estrella de Mar. “We’re surrounded by Spanish-owned holiday homes, so it’s quiet in winter but everyone is friendly,” Lesley comments.
“Moving here and starting the business went without a hitch because we were recommended a good solicitor and accountant by other British people with businesses here. We definitely made the right decision moving here and don’t regret it.”
 Michael Matthews opted for an even greater culture shock when, on inheriting some money recently, he decided to open a guest house in Marrakech. “Rather than risk putting the money in a pension fund where someone in the City could live off it, I decided to have some fun—and maybe a pension from it too,” says Michael, 59, whose life now revolves around running Riad Al Massarah (www.riadalmassarah.com) in the medina, with six contemporary Moroccan bedrooms which cost from 1,200MAD (€105) per night—or you can rent the whole riad for a nightly rate of 10,000MAD (€880).
Leaving his London home and “portfolio” career that spanned quantity surveying, psychotherapy and massage, Michael and his French partner, Michel, bought the riad for €153,000 from a European-run estate agency, “so we probably paid a bit over the market rate,” says Michael. They spent a further €208,000 on renovation, including all the furnishings, energy-saving measures and bespoke woodwork to suit the character of the house.
“It’s very much a local house with basic facilities and in need of some TLC as, like most Marrakechis, the past owners did not have the money to bring it up to modern standards,” Michael explains. “It took six months to choose a contractor, draw up plans and get planning approval, then renovation work took another 15 months,” he adds. While Michel has quickly integrated into the strong French expat community, Michael has found cultural differences such as running a business at a different pace takes some getting used to.
 “People come here for a three or four-day break,” he says. “Life in the old medina is very different to life in London with a different pace. It’s a very intimate space in a riad and we take care of guests, who can find Marrakech a big cultural shock.”
Amid his exotic new existence, Michael admits there is one element of his old life that he misses. “Sometimes, when Marrakech becomes too intense, I long for the damp, cold grey days in England.”
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James & Antonia Carpenter