We Built This #4: Lucy Gaitskell on Daffodil House, the Lake District

Posted on: 26 July, 2024

How do you go from studying at UCEM to launching your own property company? Charlotte Thackeray spoke to Lucy Gaitskell, owner of Rolcor Property, and Board Apprentice on the Board of Trustees, to find out.

From residential houses and urban spaces to bridges, towers and skyscrapers, the products of the built environment affect everyone on the planet and leave a lasting legacy that can inspire people for generations to come.

As part of UCEM’s Be Part of the Change campaign, we’re talking to built environment professionals across the sector to celebrate their incredible achievements and encourage new people to join our sector. We’re asking each person to tell us about the buildings, communities and infrastructure projects that inspire them in the UK and across the world.

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In this feature of our We Built This series, we sat down with Lucy Gaitskell, UCEM alumni, Board Apprentice and Owner of Rolcor Property.

We talked to Lucy Gaitskell about Daffodil House, in the Lake District

Lucy Gaitskell completed her MBA Construction and Real Estate at UCEM in 2020, and now runs a thriving property business with eight properties and counting.

We caught up with her at one of her holiday lets – the gorgeous Daffodil House in the Lake District – to explore her career path and discuss what’s next for this UCEM graduate-turned-property entrepreneur.

First stop: Housing Association

Lucy’s first property-related role was in a Housing Association back in 2013. “I working on in the community team”, she explained. “I had no property knowledge whatsoever, but I felt there needed to be more of a focus on customers.”

Lucy soon moved into a management role, where she co-ordinated property maintenance. Funding cuts at the Housing Association played into this decision, because “I was tired of going through this repetitive cycle of frequent cuts, and I felt like properties are always going to be there and always going to be in need of repairs.”

After three interviews, Lucy secured a Maintenance Manager role: one of only a handful of females in similar positions at the time. “I think people were a bit sceptical about whether I would be as good as my male counterparts, especially coming from Community Development, so I decided I wasn’t going to hide behind any knowledge gaps. Instead, I made sure to ask questions and learn from the people who had that knowledge, it empowered them and helped me!”

Upskilling through UCEM

Lucy was soon promoted, and it was at the point where she was running a team of 30 across Hampshire and Berkshire insourcing a kitchen and bathroom project that she started her MBA Construction and Real Estate at UCEM.

“It was a really crucial time because I had quite a bit of knowledge by then, but I needed to unpin it with a thorough technical and theoretical understanding. When I asked one of our directors what I would need to do to progress he told me I needed a masters! Doing my MBA at UCEM really helped me to solidify my approach to leadership and people management. I think I really would have struggled to start my business without it.”

Buying the first property

Lucy and her partner James started their property business by purchasing our first property in our business in 2021. “My partner had wanted to start a property business for quite a long time, and we wanted to use a SSAS pension to fund this. We later met our partners Claire and Richard who invested in us on our next property Daffodil House property with us and they are just the dream people to work with. We built the business from there, really.”

Renovation challenges

“There’s no straightforward way to renovate a property!” says Lucy. “When we bought Daffodil, it looked nothing like it does now, but it did have the bones of a great holiday lettings property. It had double bedrooms, it had parking, and the location was so pretty and close to the home of William Wordsworth who wrote the Daffodil poem, and so Daffodil House was born.”

“When we looked at that property we really liked it, but it needed a huge amount of work. In nine weeks it had a new roof, a new heating system, and a full redecoration. We also discovered damp which needed treating, and it needed a fair amount of replastering. We put new flooring in the bathroom, and the outside of the property needed a lot of improvement too.”

“The budget was tight, so we upcycled the kitchen instead. I think we paid £40 for the kitchen table and chairs from Facebook Marketplace, which our designer then painted. Now it’s one-of-a-kind! It’s also been valued at £65k more than we paid for it.”

Making the property stand out

The holiday lettings market can be competitive, especially in popular tourist locations like the Lake District, so Lucy knew she needed to make the property look distinctive.

She hired a local interior designer who advised “going bold”. Today, Daffodil House has pink ceilings, patterned wallpaper, and yellow skirting boards … and the guests are loving it.

The property received its first booking within four hours of being advertised in August 2022, and occupancy rates have consistently hit 70% since then.

“We have really high scores on AirBnB, Booking.com and Google”, says Lucy. “That’s incredibly important in this business.”

Managing the day-to-day

Lucy lives a seven-hour drive from Daffodil House, and also has seven other properties in her portfolio and three more commercial properties in our other business Partnership Places.

How does she ensure smooth day-to-day running of each property?

“Strong local partnerships and good relationships with the neighbours are absolutely essential,” explains Lucy. “The lady who lives next door to Daffodil brings the bins round to the front every week, which is so helpful because guests do forget to put out the bins. I always make sure to drop something in with her when I visit, to say thank you.”

Lucy also contracts the day-to-day cleaning management to a local provider. Her chosen partner for the Daffodil property is Custom Clean, run by Lucy Connolly.

For the last two years, Custom Clean have taken care of the turnarounds (i.e. cleaning the property between guests and organising the laundry); and co-ordinating any visits from third parties, such as maintenance personnel.

They also check the property for any seasonal damages, such as loose roof tiles in the winter, or wear and tear that needs attention.

Lucy Connolly, from Custom Clean, explains: “Properties can sometimes be empty, so we visit regularly and keep an eye out for any issues, big or small. We’ll then use our network of local specialists to fix any problems quickly.”

Working with local people is the perfect solution as far as Lucy Gaitskell is concerned: “We want to give back to the local community, and I will always look for local builders, maintenance people and cleaners first. I don’t want to just use our own people. It’s important to give back to local communities, and it’s logistically easier to do that anyway.”

What’s next?

Six of Lucy’s current properties are holiday lets, but she’s branching out into commercial lettings for property number seven. “We’re converting a property in Chippenham to serviced offices as we speak.”

As for what has prompted this change in direction, Lucy says it’s partly guided by the market, which is “becoming more saturated – there is more competition and more regulation coming, and everyone is facing increased interest rates and utility costs.” She also points out that there aren’t as many maintenance responsibilities for commercial properties.

However, Lucy certainly hasn’t ruled out adding to her holiday lettings portfolio in the future: “We may do some more, or we may stick with what we’ve got. For now, we’ve got a strategy and it seems to be working. Having your own business is a long-term game, so we’ll take it one step at a time and see where we end up!”

To find out more about the Be Part of the Change campaign and get involved, visit the homepage. If you’d like to get in touch with our Student Ambassadors for EDI, email outreachandinclusion@ucem.ac.uk

To read the previous entry in our We Built This campaign, click here.