We bought a £365k house for our son for university — when he was 13

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t is common for parents to dream big for their children. It is far less common to invest £365,000 on a property in a university town when your son is just 13.

In 2017 Jon Cooke, 63, and his wife, Solange, 53, decided to invest in a student house in Durham to help to fund the education of their three children. Their plan — which has worked — is that the rental income would go towards some of the costs of putting their son and two daughters through school and university in the UK.

Jon, a partner in Allard Cooke & Associés, an estate agency in Megève in the French Alps, lives in the nearby village of Praz-sur-Arly. His wife is the deputy mayoress.

Jon with his son Joe, who now studies at Durham University