Childcare magnate Martyn Downs lists Southern Highlands retreat
Childcare magnate Martyn Downs and wife Helena are selling their redundant luxury Southern Highlands retreat, La Belle Vie at Bundanoon.
It has been listed for auction this Sunday through Harcourts agents Paul Masefield and Robert Henderson.
The couple, who spent $5.2 million on Bowral's Royal Hotel two years ago, paid a savvy $1.4 million for the home in 2011 which was the same price paid eight years earlier.
Designed as an interpretation of a French colonial manor house, the grand home sits amid two hectares of gardens.
It comes with meandering driveway flanked by Manchurian Pear trees, past the dam with feature fountain to a circular drive at the entrance of the four bedroom home.
The couple have recently finished rebuilding their nearby weekender, Trungley Stud.
Downs has been an operator and developer of childcare centres since the early 1990s.
This article first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph.
