Our first acquisition was a London flat conversion, purchased at a price that allowed room for improvement. We completed a full refurbishment and refinanced the property two years later, releasing a substantial amount of equity in the process. It was a defining moment for us — clear evidence that when you buy at the right price and hold to a disciplined budget, the numbers work. The equity released funded the deposits, acquisition costs and refurbishment of our first HMOs.

Wherever possible we carried out the refurbishment work ourselves — removing walls, stripping out dated kitchens and bathrooms, dropping and re-boarding ceilings, plastering and decorating. It gave us a working knowledge of how to manage a renovation from start to finish, and a grounding in the fundamentals of property investment in the UK.