Show House spoke to Karl Lockley, who co-founded Lockley Homes with his brother Tom, to find out more about the company, how he got started in the industry, and what the future holds for Lockley Homes.
Tell us a little about yourselves and Lockley Homes
We are a housebuilder operating in the Midlands and Cotswolds region, led by me, Karl Lockley, and my brother, Tom. We specialise in developing small, exclusive, and luxury properties, with a focus on building 10 homes or fewer per development. This strategy allows us to offer exemplary homes on a site that might in the main cater to downsizing cash buyers. Our niche seems to be less common among our competitors in our location, with small developers focusing on one or two homes, and large PLCs delivering much larger sites.
As a company, we’ve been working on building our brand, which has started to gain recognition among potential customers. Recently, a buyer at our site in Fernhill Heath expressed her respect for Lockley Homes, mentioning that she had been following the brand for 10 years. This acknowledgement from a long-time follower was a proud moment for us.
How did you get into the housebuilding industry?
I completed my Property, Finance, and Investment course at Reading University during the year of the recession. Out of around 105 people on my course, fewer than five managed to secure jobs after graduation. Despite the difficult job market, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it forced me to explore a slightly different career path.
Meanwhile, my brother Tom, gained 3 years of experience working for a commercial builder, which provided him with valuable knowledge about the housebuilding industry.
Since I had always wanted to become a developer, we decided to establish Lockley Homes due to the challenging market conditions at that time.
How did Lockley Homes start out?
On limited funds, we managed to purchase a single ex-local authority house to renovate, and we gradually progressed from there. As we were young and our expenses were minimal, the risk was reasonably low at the time. Our quick redevelopment projects became more successful over time, allowing us to start backing ourselves financially.
We then transitioned into buying student housing and local pubs to redevelop, always aiming to create unique designs that would appeal to the student demographic – we used neon lighting and always added funky elements throughout which helped shape and tailor the homes to students. Selling our portfolio of student properties to a single investor enabled us to venture into new build development around 10 years ago.
We had a lot of learning to do in the early days, especially when it came to understanding planning, architecture, design and utility services. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come. Replicating our journey today wouldn’t be easy.
After completing our first development of two homes, we met a high-net-worth investor, Martin Fitzpatrick, who played a crucial role in our journey. After several meetings, we launched a company together, and he financed the building of our second development. The valuable time and mentorship provided by our business partner, rather than just the investment itself, significantly contributed to elevating Lockley Homes to the brand and developer it is today and Martin Fitzpatrick is still our chairman.
As brothers, how do you find working together?
My brother Tom and I used to have a typical sibling relationship when we were young, often not getting along. But as we got closer to turning 18, we started to tolerate each other. When we began working together, everything clicked. Working with Tom has been fantastic from the start – it’s like working with your best friend. We’ve never had any issues or arguments.
We each have our own responsibilities within the business. I handle all the land, finance, planning, and legal aspects. My role is to prepare a package of sites before handing them over to Tom and his team. Tom is in charge of completing the developments and overseeing the site managers. After six to twelve months, a development is built, and a sales agent begins selling.
Our different skill sets complement each other well, which has contributed to our success. This is a challenge we see with other developers – they either don’t have someone like Tom, or they are a Tom and don’t have a Karl to manage the backend work. We feel fortunate to have such a good partnership.
What challenges currently face SME developers and how have you overcome these?
We are a team that will be building houses long-term. I expect there will be both good and bad years, but we have the scope and flexibility to achieve good results regardless. We’re not overleveraged, and we’re not taking excessive risks with our developments. Instead, we are gradually building our pipeline and expanding our portfolio, and we feel that we have built a solid business.
Do you think the change of government will be a positive for the industry?
I believe the incoming Labour government may not be such a bad thing, especially for our focus on housing. The initiatives from Rachel Reeves and the broader Labour government seem to align better with our interests, compared to some questionable decisions made by the Conservatives, such as removing housing targets. These decisions directly impact our day-to-day operations at Lockley Homes, particularly in planning applications and site acquisitions.
In my opinion, Labour’s arrival seems like a positive development, but only time will tell.
What does the future hold for Lockley Homes?
Our number one priority is to continue building high-quality homes.
As I’ve grown older and wiser, I’ve come to realise that emulating the business model of developers like Millgate Homes is more in line with our long-term goals than looking at the national, publicly-owned housebuilders. I admire how Graeme Simpson has built a reputable company slowly but surely over the course of 40 years.
We believe it’s better to be known as a builder of superior-quality homes in our local area than to focus on volume where quality might suffer. We are familiar with the environment and the villages where we build, as well as our customers and every aspect of our sites, past and present. We aim to build out two to three developments of such calibre every year.
