Homepage LIVING
Raj is an esteemed events planner and CEO of Silverfox Events who works internationally and in the UK. Starting out selling balloon bouquets with his late mother, he now runs high-profile weddings, birthday parties and corporate events. He also owns GupShup in Hale, which is one of the most popular Indian restaurants in the North West. He chats to Lynda Clark about his incredible career, his first home and gives some good advice to first time buyers Photos: iproductions At home with: Raj Somaiya
room but we hope to complete them this year. We invested every single penny we had into the house and we pretty much gutted it. I copied the idea from our other house, The Square, and we created an orangery which leads off the kitchen. It’s all really very special and I think this will be our forever home. FTB : How did you career begin? RS: My mother had three Post Offices and card shops and I used to help her. It was the mid 80s but sadly in 1989 interest rates rocketed and we couldn’t afford to carry on with the shops and we went bust! It was very sad but my mother was an incredible woman. Luckily she had also started a helium balloon business and was the first person to offer balloon bouquets in the North. She had arrived in the UK aged 19 from Africa and married my father and she
Hale as an area. We bought a house which is on the cusp of Hale and Bowdon. Bowdon is a very affluent town and at one point the homes there were more expensive than in Knightsbridge! It’s an old detached house and is gated and has a stunning garden. We have done a great deal of work to it and extended it and turned it back to brick. It’s over four floors and has six bedrooms all with en suites and we have created a little temple upstairs. We still have to finish the interiors of the main lounge and dining
FTB : Tell us about your first step on the property ladder? RS: In 2002 we bought an amazing townhouse in Whitefield called The Square, which had been designed by the renowned property developer PJ Livesey. It was really very special and had a garage in the basement, a den, a lovely kitchen that led on to a conservatory, and four bedrooms with an en suite to the main one plus a family bathroom. The communal gardens were wonderful and we really loved it. My eldest daughter was four when we moved there and my youngest daughter was just six months old. We stayed until 2016 when my son was born and it began to feel a little cramped and we wanted more space. We sold it and rented for around four years until we decided where we really wanted to move to. FTB : Where do you live now? RS: We were keen that our son went to Manchester Grammar School and we loved
“WE ARE WELL KNOWN FOR OUR GROUND-BREAKING DESIGN IDEAS, BESPOKE WEDDING CREATIONS AND IMPECCABLY HIGH STANDARDS OF FOOD, DRINKS AND SERVICE”
12 First Time Buyer June/July 2024
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease