My childhood dream’s come true
Jane Sayce, 59, is a marketing agent, and lives with her partner, Paul, 52, an electrician. She has two children cassie, 32, and Joshua, 33, and a grandson Zae, one. She has homes in cyprus, Shropshire and cleethorpes. Jane says: EvER since I was a little girl growing up in a council house in the Midlands I always knew I’d have a property overseas one day.
And I was right. Today, I still get a rush of pleasure waking up to azure blue skies and a twinkling, inviting swimming pool — and ending the day with something chilled and gorgeous, as I watch the sun go down.
This is the life I adore in Cyprus for five months of the year.
As soon as I left home at 18, I went to Belgium, where I worked as an au pair before working in hospitality in hotels in Germany and Denmark. When I returned to the UK, I married and raised my family. I’m one of life’s grafters and so when the children finally flew the nest, I set about making my dream a reality. I sold my UK property in Staffordshire and used the proceeds to buy a place off plan in Cyprus.
It took three years to build my three-bedroom dream home in the sun. I’d fly out to see the progress and gradually fell in love with the Cypriot way of life. I’m not someone who divulges the costs involved, as I regard that as personal.
When it was ready three years later, I sold my house in Staffordshire and moved here full-time. Not everyone was here in Paphos permanently and before long people began to ask me to manage their property. I found it was something I not only enjoyed, but was good at.
I went from managing eight to then launching my own company and marketing approximately 100 holiday homes, although today I have scaled the business back to 80 properties.
Three years ago, I bought my two-bedroom ‘log cabin’ retreat in Shropshire. I find the summers too hot in Cyprus, and also it’s closer to Birmingham, where my grown-up children live.
The wildlife is stunning; I sit on the terrace and wind down while watching geese waddle by or listening to the woodpeckers in the forests.
I am already thinking about my future though, which is why I have just snapped up a town property in Cleethorpes. It’s a rather chi- chi seafront flat, which I regard as a great investment. I can see it is somewhere we could both retire to when I eventually sell up.
My family are rather proud of me. They know how hard we’ve worked to achieve this.