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One-on-one: Mike Gill, Lifestory

Posted 17 July 2020 by Lizzie Leigh

The regional MD of Lifestory tells us about building an ‘intergenerational community’ in Cheltenham...

Mike Gill, regional managing director (North and Midlands) for Lifestory, tells us about building an ‘intergenerational community’ in Cheltenham and how it has been strengthened by a pen pal scheme which has connected people of all ages during the pandemic.

 

Lifestory was established after the merger of three companies at the end of last year, can you tell us how this came about?

Lifestory is formed from the merger of Anthology, Renaissance Retirement and PegasusLife. The creation of Lifestory allows us to create homes and serve our customers at every stage of their lives. Whether customers are first-time buyers or downsizers.

This has been an exciting new venture for the three companies as each brings a range of strengths to the combined business, but at the core is a commitment to providing outstanding customer experience. For Lifestory, our customers’ shared aspirations for quality homes and quality of life is at the centre of our business model, with their stories and lives at the heart of our ethos and approach.

You have just launched what you describe as your first 'intergenerational community' scheme in Cheltenham, John Dower House; tell us more!

Our beautiful Grade II John Dower House is the first of our developments where open-market homes are situated on the same site as one of our later living developments. Our Latheram House development, neighbouring John Dower House, has recently launched offering our PegasusLife product with apartments and cottages available to either buy or rent.

Intergenerational developments offer a blend of culture, community, safety, and security as well as the individual benefits of buying either open market or later living. Whilst the homes within the two developments have a very unique proposition for their owners there is also the opportunity to be part of a more cohesive community which has multiple advantages. Having intergenerational friendships provides many benefits however as most new developments tend to offer homes that may not be suit all age groups in the same place, these can sometimes be hard to find. With John Dower House and Latheram House being so close we hope it will provide these usually rare opportunities for our new owners to form these friendships and enjoy the benefits this can bring.

John Dower HouseJohn Dower House

John Dower House is a beautiful Grade II listed building, was it difficult to implement sympathetic design features to the properties?

John Dower House dates back to 1812 and has a host of fantastic features which we wanted to maintain and work around to restore through the creation of the 12 stunning Regency apartments it is now home to. We had a good relationship with the Planning Authority and English Heritage which made the process quite straightforward.

The grand Regency façade has been sympathetically restored to maintain the original features such as The Royal Coat of Arms which still sits over the entrance portico. We’ve maintained the high regency ceilings and magnificent sweeping staircase in the entrance hall and have taken great care to renovate the original windows and doors. We also took care to maintain many of the original courthouse features which now sit in one of the apartments, you can see where the original dock was and the staircase down to the cells! The space in each of the new apartments fits around the original features really well and we have kept the addition of new features very simple, ultimately the space speaks for itself and has lent itself very well to forming fantastic spacious apartments.

Lifestory established the 'Stronger Together' pen pal scheme earlier this year at the beginning of lockdown – how has it been going?

Our Stronger Together campaign has been a great success! It was originally launched to build a bridge between generations to ensure a fluid, honest, open, and engaging dialogue which will break down barriers and help combat loneliness. We were asking for school children and their families to share pictures, drawings, and stories with us to share with our owners. During this time the coronavirus pandemic hit, which propelled the importance of this campaign to help keep owners in our PegasusLife and Renaissance Retirement communities feel connected and to boost community spirit. We extended the initiative and spread the word far and wide and we’ve received so many fantastic pictures and stories from children across the country!

We’ve now started to see some two-way communications with owners responding to children that have got in touch. One of our owners who has been creating newsletters for his fellow owners during the pandemic even created a specific newsletter dedicated to one of the children. We’re hoping to see more pen pal relationships forming as we continue with our campaign to help promote the importance and benefits of intergenerational communities and communication.

Do you think the current pandemic crisis has strengthened the bonds between different generations?

The pandemic has strengthened bonds in our communities as no matter our age, everyone has been experiencing the same situation and having to adapt and we’ve certainly seen some great examples of this across our Lifestory family. Owners across both Renaissance and PegasusLife have been supporting one another with their weekly food shop or simply making time for a socially distanced chat.

One Bayshill RoadOne Bayshill Road

Our Lifehosts and development teams have all gone above and beyond to support our communities during the pandemic too. Their day to day role has had to adapt and some have sacrificed family time to support our owners, for example The Larder Restaurant, which is located on One Bayshill Road, the owners Hetty and Lucie, having been supplying home-made Sunday lunches and delivering them right to the owners’ front doors. Lifehosts elsewhere have also temporarily moved into developments for weeks at a time to provide additional support to owners and lift spirits.

Across Lifestory, our community spirit has really shone and it has been humbling to see.

Our Stronger Together campaign as we’ve already mentioned has also illustrated this, it’s been great to see how many young people have wanted to reach out and share their stories with our owners and their understanding of the importance and value of the older generations has been reflected in the letters we’ve received.

Wildernesse HouseWildernesse House

It’s worked the other way as well, our owners and Lifehost, Tyna, at Wildernesse House in Sevenoaks came together to support a young resident in the village who was feeling upset about having his 7th birthday during lockdown. They created a fantastic banner and joined others in the village in wishing him happy birthday.

Do you see schemes such as this as being a return to the 'good old days' when generations of families would live close together throughout their lives?

Developments like John Dower House and Latheram House with their proximity open up the opportunities for families or couples to live next door to their parents or grandparents. It provides the opportunity for generations to make the decision to move together, for younger people buying their first home the opportunity to align this with when parents are downsizing and make the move together to somewhere new with the comfort of knowing your family is still close by.

Are you offering different incentives to buyers at different stages of their property journey: the first-time buyer has different requirements to a downsizing retiree?

Across the Lifestory portfolio we offer Help to Buy on our open-market homes that meet the criteria. We also have a range of financial enablers to help make the buying and moving process as simple and low stress as possible, particularly for downsizers to our PegasusLife and Renaissance Retirement homes.

Our Part Exchange incentive enables prospective buyers to go through the home buying process with minimal worry, it helps free buyers from a chain with the risk of the process falling through as we effectively become their purchaser. We deal with estate agents and surveyors and provide an easy way for buyers to sell their current home and purchase their new home with us.

Our home move service is also designed to make the moving process even easier. We work with a third party who can help buyers plan their move, from preparing an inventory of furniture and helping plan their new home layout right through to the logistics on moving day. We can take care of transporting and unpacking to make moving day simple. In addition, we can assist downsizers decide what to take with them to their new home, as we appreciate it can be a difficult experience leaving a house that they may have lived in for some time to move to their new home.

It is important to us to provide our customers with choice so at our later living developments, we offer the freedom of two rental options. As well as opting for the traditional rental option, customers can also choose to rent one of our homes for six months using ‘Rent To Buy’. This provides the opportunity to try out community living before committing to a purchase. Our customers can then choose whether to continue with the rental option or to purchase the home. If they decide to buy, then we will credit the rent they have spent towards the purchase of the new home.

Lifestory talks about building homes and communities – how do you hope to achieve this?

Our ethos focuses on building legacy and enhancing existing communities; the areas in which we build are full of history, heritage and community spirit and we want to add to that. It is important to us to work with local businesses and groups to embed within the community. For example, the Anthology team in London worked with Stratford East theatre to refurbish their green room, new equipment was donated and a team of volunteers pulled together to paint and refurbish the space. Another recent example during the pandemic was from the restaurant team at One Bayshill Road, the owners, Hetty and Lucie, were due to launch The Larder earlier in the year, this was unfortunately postponed due to COVID-19. So instead over the past few months Hetty and Lucie have been working hard to supply our owners at One Bayshill Road and the wider Cheltenham community with tasty meals, snacks and Sunday roasts delivered to their doors.

Deptford FoundryDeptford Foundry

To celebrate the history of Deptford and leave our mark on the area for years to come, we commissioned a magnificent bronze sculpture named ‘The Green Man’. This was created with London Bronze Casting, a metal structures company, and neighbours of our Deptford Foundry development. The Green Man encapsulates Deptford’s rich industrial heritage, and the site’s previous history as a working foundry. It’s projects and relationships like this that we value so much in the areas that we are building; we want to make a lasting positive impact in the wider community as well as providing fantastic new homes for our buyers.

On the ground at our developments our Lifehosts are an integral part to the flourishing communities, they organise events and activities in the communal spaces for the owners to take part in. In recent months this has been a little more difficult but there have been many socially distant coffee mornings and evening drinks across the regions that Lifehosts or even owners themselves have organised to stay connected with one another.

Through our work in the wider communities we are able to then introduce our owners to local hobby groups, clubs, or organisations that they can then become involved in which also helps to bond the new and existing communities.

How is the local Cheltenham property market performing at the moment?

Cheltenham has always been an extremely popular location, which has recently seen a boost in interest following the town being voted one of the best places to live in the UK by the Sunday Times. For many moving out of the capital and for the area’s reputation as The Festival Town, there’s something here for everyone and that’s been reflected in the high demand for property. Naturally, in recent months the property market has slowed but we are now starting to see it pick up again, across the board the market is buoyant for both sales and rentals across the area.

Following the lockdown, we are also seeing an increased demand for homes that boast outdoor space and wider green space on the doorstep and Cheltenham certainly has that offer.

What other projects do you have planned for 2020?

We’ve got some exciting plans for new developments launching in the coming months. This autumn, we’ll be launching our first development in the North of England, Pegasus Jesmond Assembly, one of our PegasusLife developments which is situated in the popular area of Jesmond in Newcastle. The development comprises 63 later living apartments, a mixture of one- and two- bedroom homes including duplexes.

In Bristol, we are soon to launch The Vincent development which is a beautiful combination of the historic Queen Victoria House and brand new three- and four-storey terraces linked with a Victorian-inspired arboretum. It really is quite special, preserving the valuable history of the site and offers a novel take on the surrounding Bristolian townscape.

Find out more about Lifestory. 

 

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