The start of 2025 saw Colette Barr relocate to Mallorca from Dubai with her teenage son and husband. With the couple’s eldest son leaving to attend college in the US, after 14 years living in the Middle East, the time was long overdue to embark on a new chapter.
The family’s original intention was to make the move six years ago. They went so far as to buy a home in Bendinat, but the arrival of the pandemic set back their plans. After much consideration, deciding that the first house was not the right choice, the Barrs enlisted the hc/ Property Buyer’s Agency to help them find their ideal home in the traditional village of Genova, on the outskirts of Palma de Mallorca.
Colette is a wellness advocate, sound healer and author, while her husband currently maintains his job role in Dubai, regularly travelling between Mallorca and the Middle East.
Culture, connection, freedom; just some of what Colette Barr has found living in Mallorca.
“We go down to the panaderia, the bakery, and everyone from the village is there,” she says. “Little things like that are so special because we’ve not had that before ever. So it’s very nice.”
Lighter life
She only moved into her new home in the southwest of Mallorca a few months ago, and had to leave a lot of possessions behind in the process: “The biggest thing for us coming from Dubai was the space. This is a tall, neat, compact townhouse. In Dubai, everything’s bigger…we came with very little furniture, and it was just gaming stuff and clothes, really.”
But downsizing proved to be cathartic. Living with less means the family’s home feels calm and uncluttered, and despite her initial worry, Colette says she feels lighter as a result: “That was on my mind; how can we fit our lives into such a smaller property? But you manage, and it’s Europe, everything’s smaller, the streets are half the size – you just adapt. “I don’t have half the things in here that I usually have with me, and you just don’t need them.”
Vital support
Now that the big move is completed and her youngest is enrolled and settled at school, Colette is able to breathe more deeply. Although she and her husband had travelled extensively and lived abroad long-term, the move to the Balearics was hugely challenging.
“Relocating somewhere new, whilst exciting, also felt daunting,” she admits. “Moving from Dubai to Mallorca felt more difficult than leaving Scotland for Dubai.” Finding hc/ property buyer’s agent Lucy Adamson was a game changer: “Lucy was fantastic, an absolute gift, an angel.”
Working together to build a vision of what the couple were looking for, they hit on the right property – a newbuild townhouse in Genova – very quickly. “This area is very traditional, it’s lovely,” Colette says. “The church bells, the little streets, the coloured shutters on the windows, the older people in the village; it’s like something out of a book.”
