John Morphet, who farms 250 acres in the Lake District, bought the 750-acre Royal Westmoreland estate of holiday villas in Barbados a decade ago for £55m (€77m), after netting £115m (€161m) from the sale of part of his UK business to Legal & General.
The estate is a regularly frequented by celebrities such as footballer Wayne Rooney and cricketer Michael Vaughan.
It includes 225 holiday homes, a clubhouse, restaurant, spa, private beach and a golf course. Visitors buy the freehold of their villas and pay an annual service charge for the facilities.
Morphet has decided to sell up because “after 96 trips [to Barbados] in 10 years” and having reached his 60s he is “at a crossroads”, he said.
“I’m not getting any younger and it needs more time than I’d like to give it."
In 1988 Morphet set up the precursor to Pure Leisure, a caravan rental company, and took the business upmarket into more luxurious holiday homes in 1996 after buying a collection of rundown lodges on the shores of Lake Windermere.
The report states that he plans to reinvest the capital raised from the sale of Royal Westmoreland back into leisure assets in the UK.
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