The sparks from a welding torch seem an unlikely starting point for a career that would shape towns across southeast England. Yet for Michael Shanly, those years spent joining metal by day—whilst dealing cards in a casino by night—were laying foundations more valuable than any university degree could provide.
Born in High Wycombe in December 1945 and raised by a single mother in Eastcote, Middlesex, Shanly’s early years offered few obvious routes to success. He struggled with reading and writing in school, leaving at 14 without qualifications. But what formal education failed to ignite, practical work brought to life. He spent his free time repairing bikes and refurbishing cars, discovering a satisfaction in making broken things work again that would define his entire career.
The Seeds of a Property Empire
A childhood image lodged itself in Shanly’s mind and refused to let go. Cycling through northwest London, he would pass a derelict house each day—boarded windows, peeling paint, a symbol of neglect that others simply looked past. Where most saw decay, the young Shanly saw something else entirely. “One day, I want to buy that house and do it up,” he thought.
That instinct—to recognise potential where others see only problems—would prove more valuable than any qualification. It guided him through nearly a decade of dual employment, welding teaching him about construction and materials whilst casino work sharpened his understanding of risk and probability. Every pay packet fed a growing savings account earmarked for an undefined but certain future.
By 1969, at age 23, Shanly had accumulated enough to act. He purchased a semi-detached house in Pinner, refurbished it, and sold it for a profit. The returns were modest, but they were enough to buy land, begin his first construction project, and to establish a tiny office in South Harrow. Michael Shanly Homes was born.
Building Through the Early Years
The early 1970s saw steady growth. Shanly opened his first formal office in Beaconsfield in 1973 and brought in a more experienced developer and businessman, Jim Bonser as an investor, enabling expansion into larger projects. The company focused on building quality homes around the Home Counties, slowly developing a reputation for craftsmanship that distinguished it from competitors focused purely on volume.
Then came 1974, and everything changed.
The global oil crisis sent shockwaves through the British economy. Inflation soared, mortgage rates reached punitive levels, and the property market—which had seemed so reliable during the late 1960s boom—began sliding into uncertainty. Access to development loans became increasingly restricted. For property developers, the outlook turned treacherous overnight.
Crisis and Reinvention
Shanly found himself standing at a construction site by the river in Maidenhead, taking over day-to-day site management to keep costs down, overseeing a project that under different circumstances would have been straightforward. Now it had become financially precarious.
Most developers would have paused, waited, hoped for the market to steady itself. Shanly looked at the site differently. An existing house sat on the property, earmarked for demolition. He saw an opportunity: convert it into rental flats, generate steady income, and ride out the storm.
That decision kept cash flowing when others were drowning. More importantly, it revealed a fundamental insight that would reshape his entire business philosophy. Property investment didn’t have to chase short-term gains. An income-generating portfolio, managed for the long term, could provide stability through economic cycles whilst building lasting wealth.
When the dust settled, that single converted house had planted the seed for what would become Sorbon Estates—a commercial property business formally incorporated in 1994, now supporting over 1,500 tenants. The name itself honours Jim Bonser, misspelt as an anagram, acknowledging the early backer who helped the business survive its most challenging period.
Decades of Growth
By the mid-1980s, after 15 years in business, Shanly’s companies had built around 2,000 homes and completed 40 commercial property developments. The firm that began with a refurbished house in Pinner had become a significant regional force.
Growth continued through the following decades. Shanly Homes expanded to multiple regional divisions, building everything from individual houses to large housing estates. In 2012, the group launched Shanly Partnership Homes—now known as Milestone—as a registered provider of affordable shared-ownership housing.
Throughout this expansion, Shanly maintained the hands-on approach that had characterised his earliest projects. “I still go round our sites tweaking and improving so we can be proud of what we’ve built,” he has said. That attention to detail, scaled across thousands of homes, became the company’s signature.
Maidenhead: A Career-Defining Project
In 2008, Shanly became a founding member of the Partnership for the Rejuvenation of Maidenhead, returning to the town where he had weathered the 1974 crisis. The Chapel Arches development that followed would become the defining project of his career.
Spanning three phases—Waterside Quarter, The Picturehouse, and Chapel Wharf—the regeneration delivered 259 new homes and 30,000 square feet of commercial space. But numbers alone don’t capture what the project achieved. Maidenhead’s historic waterways, long fallen into neglect, were restored and celebrated. A 200-seat amphitheatre created space for community gatherings. Independent businesses moved into commercial units, helping redefine the area as a destination.
Nearly a million visitors now pass through annually. The project earned the RICS Regeneration Award and, in 2023, the Maidenhead Civic Society Design Award—presented to Shanly by former Prime Minister Theresa May, an honour not bestowed on any project in over a decade.
Recognition and Legacy
The accolades have accumulated steadily. In 2021 and 2025, Shanly Homes was named Housebuilder of the Year at the Thames Valley Property Awards. The company has earned recognition for design excellence across multiple developments, validating a philosophy that prioritises lasting quality over rapid returns.
Yet perhaps the most significant milestone came in 2024, when Shanly announced plans for the Shanly Foundation—his charitable organisation, established in 1994, which has contributed over £30 million to local causes—to assume full ownership of his trading businesses in the future. Company profits will be permanently reinvested into charitable work, ensuring that the legacy extends beyond buildings into lasting community benefit.
“It’s not about profit,” Shanly has said. “It’s about fighting for quality, enjoying what we do, and giving back.”
From a teenager wielding a welding torch to a business leader whose developments have shaped communities across southeast England, Michael Shanly’s journey spans more than 50 years and over 12,000 homes. It’s a career built not on privilege or credentials, but on an instinct first glimpsed in a derelict house—the conviction that what others overlook can, with effort and vision, be transformed into something of lasting value.
