UK BTL and renovation advice required for avid P118 readers
With immense joy and interest I’m devouring all Property118 articles. What a wealth of experience and knowledge you all have! And what generosity to share this wealth with others.
My husband and I are a newly retired Dutch(me)/English couple who have lived in Australia for 32 years. We are experienced BTL investors and renovators, however, have no experience in the UK.
We plan to move November/December (currently living in the Netherlands) and have Kent or East Sussex seaside in our sights. We have 3 models in mind to start our business in the UK;
1) Start with a cheap renovation (cash buy) to get to know the UK market/processes and reading/learning as much as we can before we take the plunge.
2) We’re even interested in moving into a run down property and do it up (cosmetic only) for the landlord/lady while we live in it in exchange for free rent or on a form of cost-share basis, again to learn the ropes and move on from there.
3) We’re also considering a JV with an experienced renovator where we offer our time and labour in exchange for on the job training/knowledge. Must be someone who enjoys teaching!
We intend to do a few renovations first to create a cash buffer before we venture in the BTL business.
Any ideas anyone? This is my first UK forum post so I will be looking forward to anything you can help me with.
Carlijn
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Member Since February 2011 - Comments: 3453 - Articles: 286
11:19 AM, 3rd August 2015, About 11 years ago
Hi Carlijn,
I love your enthusiasm 🙂
I would hesitate to give specific advice without knowing more about your plans, circumstances and the projects involved eg.
What working capital do you have to invest (maybe not to answer on open forum)
What sort of purchase price are you looking at
What would be the build costs
GDV – Gross development value when finished
Exit strategy – sell or rent
How many projects you are looking to undertake and over what time?
Plan number 1) would be the most common route
Plan number 2) would be massively risky investing into a property you do not own. I would avoid this at all costs
Plan number 3) sounds fun, but finding the right partner can be difficult.
I would make sure I have the right professionals around me such as Accountants, NACFB member broker, Solicitors etc which can all be found using the help tabs at the top of the page.
Don’t forget one of the major show stoppers to consider is planning permission.
I hope that helps a little, but I wasn’t quite sure where to start.