A LAST minute China crises was narrowly avoided when Nick and Nadia Baloglou planned to leave their home in Shanghai and start a new life in the Cotswolds.

The couple had been on an unsuccessful house hunting trip to the UK and were on their way back to the airport when a sudden phone call solved their problem.

Mr Balaglou, who works for Jaguar Land Rover, and his wife are originally from Australia, but had been living in China for the past two and a half years. When Mr Balaglou was relocated to the UK for work, a last minute visit to CALA’s Shepherd’s Fold development at Mickleton saw them reserving their dream five-bedroom home just one day later.

He said: "We wanted to be able to move straight into a new home in the UK without the need to rent and then move again. We came in May to familiarise ourselves with the Midlands before we made the big move and stopped by CALA’s Coton House development in Rugby, as well as Shepherd’s Fold in Mickleton. We were impressed by the homes on offer, but took a particular shine to a property at Shepherd’s Fold, which had sadly already been reserved.

"At the end of our visit, when we were supposed to have found a rental house or something to buy, we were leaving the UK without a plan. We were driving from our hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon to the airport when the phone rang – it was the sales consultant from Shepherd’s Fold calling to let us know that the sale had just fallen through on the plot that we liked. We couldn’t believe it so we took a detour to Mickleton on our way to Heathrow. We only had half an hour to look through the house, which was still under construction at the time, or risk completely missing our flight. We flew back to China and the next day we called the development to purchase the house. It was the best 30 minute decision in our 24 years of marriage.

"We love the quietness of the area and our two golden retrievers, Alfred and Emma, love our spacious back garden, as well as going for walks in the surrounding countryside. We were already fans of the Cotswolds after coming to the area during a holiday in 2010. We visited Hidcote Gardens and Chipping Campden, and could only imagine what it would be like to live in such a beautiful part of England, where it felt like time had stood still for us."