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BUILDING A PPOPERTY PORTFOLIO

As a company we have guided many clients in the process of building successful property portfolios. A portfolio is just a name for a bag of properties that you own, right? WRONG.

MY DEFINITION: A portfolio is a group of properties under the same ownership linked by a common goal or objective.

From this definition there are a few ‘so whats’:

Deliberate Vs Accidental

Many people accidentally end up with a random group of properties that they own & call it a portfolio. There is no common goal or objective & it is therefore unified by nothing – which makes it counterproductive & a headache. Having a portfolio is a decision & therefore is a deliberate process.

Random vs Calculated
You must have defined criteria for your portfolio that goes beyond just cheap! Buying stuff randomly based on individual analysis will result in very little unity & cohesion. Deliberate, even if slower, development of a portfolio truly unified will be far far more valuable in the longer term.

Portfolios within Portfolios
As portfolio growth continues & life ebbs and flows, the aims & objectives may change. You may need, as I have, to have portfolios within portfolios. I.e. shorter term high yield properties in less desirable locations to assist with covering school fees – duration 10 years, then sell.

End State
I bang on about end state based decisions, but it is vital to start something with an end in mind – why do it & for what? Make sure it will deliver the aims & be realistic & goals modest if it means guaranteeing success!

Agree or disagree? 

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Projects Completed

CENTURION ROAD, BRIGHTON

We are excited to show you our recent renovation completion, Centurion Road, Brighton.  We pushed on during the lockdown with a bare minimum team to complete this renovation for our returning Property Investor client, who has now completed 4 properties with Target Five.

Target Five sourced the property for our client, with works starting at the end of February 2020 and completing (with a slight delay due to Covid-19 lockdown and the difficulty in obtaining building materials).

The property was originally a 3 bed family home and is now a stunning 5 bed (planning for 6 bed) with 3 shower rooms.  The property has been finished to a high specification and the interior design was undertaken by the T5 team, to create a top end rental property, creating a fantastic yield for our client and was let off plan!

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Blog

What is freedom to you?

We all have goals. Not all are life changing some are simply to be better at something or learn from challenges, but I believe we all have one common goal and that is to be free.

Freedom. What does it mean to you?

It is commonly perceived that money equals freedom, in fact our experience is freedom is achieved by gaining more time. More time for family, for fun, for learning. Our aim is to find ways to offer our clients that valuable commodity of time, and in turn freedom. Does this sound appealing to you? We can help, but first we have to understand a few things about your goals.

Being able to live free from your financial restraints can seem impossible, we all have bills to pay, mortgages to cover, school fees due perhaps. To help you to start on the journey to becoming less beholden to these constraints we have to first understand these costs and work out what your ‘ passive income’ figure is.

Passive income is the amount of money you would need to receive from your investment to cover the cost of living for you. Passive income by its very nature is income received without having to work. Consider how much you need every month to live comfortably and ensure all your obligations financially are met. When we know this figure it allows us to start to focus and hone in on what type of property investment is right for you. This isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ situation and we are very committed to making sure we really listen to your needs and end goal and tailor the search and investment for you.

Our next step is to consider how much you are looking to invest. It doesn’t always have to be large sums of money for us to be able to offer you a return on your investment. We are look at the best way to make your money work hard for you.

We also need to consider your appetite for risk, there are varying options for investing and some offer more risk than others. For example buying a plot of land unconditionally without any planning on hope that you will get the planning for development you are hoping for can be risky if you haven’t considered all the elements that could go wrong, however this comes with a larger reward if handled correctly and bought well.

We offer a range of investment opportunities and can help you choose the right one to give you the freedom you are looking for;

  • Standard Buy-To-Let Investment – this is a ready made option, usually buying a small one or two bedroom apartment in a central location offering an immediate monthly rental return to you.
  • Small Conversion Opportunity – Purchasing a lower value apartment, or small house where we have identified an opportunity to add value through refurbishment, extension or conversion into multiple units.
  • Large Block Investments – Purchasing a larger block that can be converted through a planning process or change of use to form large HMO’s or flats.
  • Mixed Use Investments – these have a commercial shop, office or restaurant on the premises but with a residential element usually found above. This allows a spread of your risk as the commercial space can be rented out on a longer lease. The residential spaces can often be converted and extended and the allowed permitted development rights make these slightly easier than standard residential opportunities.
  • Land with Planning Uplift potential – Our experience, knowledge and team of specialist make these opportunities the most existing for us. We can often identify opportunities where others have not been able to and working along side our award winning planning consultants, Whaleback we are actively sourcing these opportunities right now for investment. The added value to property like this can be extremely profitable if done well.
  • Funding Investment – We can offer returns for investments of varying sizes through standard lending agreements, crowdfunding opportunities, joint ventures and other ways you can invest small to start to build up to a larger investment.

We work with you to consider which option is best for your needs and then we get to work on sourcing the right opportunity for you.

We get the most amazing sense of satisfaction helping you achieve financial freedom and our incentivisation is based on the success of the opportunity sourced.

If you having been thinking about a plan for your future, start now, get in touch to learn about our different options and let us help you embark on the journey to financial freedom. Send me a message, email me on Tina@spp.agency or give me a call to discuss how we can help you be free.

Tina Wenham – Target Five Director
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Blog

Why Yield Is Everything

Long term holding of good quality property is profitable and logical, provided it is beneficial for the owner and the resident. Profitable because in the longer-term any lending stays the same or drops away as values and rents increase, so over time it becomes more profitable. Logical because you may as well – the barriers to entry are high, taxes, refurbishment costs and property set up, it is logical to hold it to see a return on investment. For a long time the play was to hold property and for it to ‘wash its face’ – but this makes no sense. Given that in the same geographical area property levels rise and fall at broadly the same rate relative to each other, why buy a property that only ‘washes its face’ when you can have one that cashflows well from day 1. It also massively de-risks the property.

Price rises instantly are not guaranteed, but usually some movement will be seen in 5 years, at least in line with inflation. In a post-Covid 19 world it is likely to be a higher increase only because there will be a dip first, a dip to take advantage of. Either way fiscal policy is uncertain, interest rates could rise, lenders could become more nervous. The higher the yield the less exposed an owner is to these changes.

Yield has to be created though. There has to be a value add at every stage of the process. I never listen to an estate agent when he gives me a yield for a property at a certain price. Firstly because it needs to be calculated first hand, but secondly because it will not reflect the potential of the property.

There are 6 points at which yield can be maximised, as per the attached infographic –

  1. Knowing the Market – is it right to achieve not just what you want but what the market wants.
  2. Buying at the right price – this impacts everything but it still needs to be right, negotiate hard but be fair!
  3. Scoping the property – there is a correct solution and balance to every property, this means extra rooms and ensuites, but also communal space and a flow to the property.
  4. Correct licensing and planning – this is a value add as well as a compliance issue.
  5. Cost-effective refurbishment – use professional investment property contractors – right quality, the right speed and right spend.
  6. Achieve rents and Occupancy. The market will dictate the rent, but a good agent will get you good rents, good occupancy AND look after your residents!

At T5 we have two clear strategies – land planning uplift and development for CAPITAL GROWTH and high yield property development and conversion for LONG TERM INCOME. Once the rest falls away it is these long term high yield investments that will remain and will see us into a retirement few could dream of. The subject of this article is getting this right! This links closely to our first Crowdfunding raise starting soon – SO WATCH THIS SPACE!      Andy Babbayan – Director of Target Five

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Blog

Never too old to share

What age do you think the average house sharer is in the UK? 18? 20? 25?

Recent data released from Build-Asset Management, shows the average age of renters living in shared properties in the UK has risen by 5 years since 2017 bringing the average age of co residents of shared houses to nearly 30 (28.2). Given this rise it make sense that the average time that renters remaining in shared residences has extended also, from 12 months in 2017 to just over 18 months in 2019 over a 50% rise.

As you may expect, the 18-25 age category still accounts for the largest percentage of all room share tenants, with 43% of those renting falling into this bracket. This starts to decline as the age increases:

  • 36% of room shares are aged between 25-35
  • 13% between 35-45
  • 6% between 45-55
  • Just 2% are aged 55 or over

It is clear however that there is a market in need of quality housing, professional sharer residents.

At Sussex Property Partnership and Target Five, we recognised this change in the dynamic of sharers last year when the student renters market in Brighton & Hove was left with many un-rented rooms following the start of the academic year.

We knew we needed to resolve this for our clients and also saw it as an opportunity to reassess our specification on projects, and make sure we were still offering the best quality we could to renters.

We immediately started sourcing and refurbishing investment opportunities for our landlord and investor clients to cater for this change in the demographic of sharer residents. This meant not only upgrading the remaining rooms on offer, but looking at a diversification of properties. Not only does this spread the risk and ensure the maximum rents can be achieved for our clients but also caters for the ever growing need of the local sharing residents market in Brighton & Hove.

It also, however, became clear very quickly through our research and development of the new properties on offer, that there were other emerging areas in the professional sharing residents market that needed a solution and therefore we extended our search area for sourcing opportunities to convert and develop to Worthing and Littlehampton.

We now have the first of these specially designed rooms available for sharers looking in Brighton, Hove, Worthing & Littlehampton. Stylish, beautifully furnished, functional, well located properties, with excellent facilities, bills included and additional extras on offer like cleaning and faster WIFI.

Unlike our competitors, our business model is based on us being incentivised by our clients success and as such this makes us focused and determined to not just sit back and let you deal with the problem of a un rented house or room. So when the very real problem of a reduced return hit our clients last year, it hit us to. This made us focused and driven to solve the issue and are constantly looking to diversify and evolve through assessing markets and demand areas.

If you have recently been left with empty rooms or houses and are just looking to diversify your portfolio with an upgrade to your existing properties or looking to invest to add to your offering as a landlord, we can help you contact me and I can discuss you individual requirements. We have great opportunities available to secure now.

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Blog

Are you in Property or in Money?

This is a question I ask clients when I first meet them to understand their motivation in getting in touch. Usually it draws a blank coupled with a glance towards the door. I then explain that it is a simple question and one that very quickly gets to the bottom of why they want to buy another property. Are they doing it because they are convinced of the long term fundamentals of property and are looking to hold it, or because they want to refurbish and sell it, to flip, or to sell in the near future? If it is the former, they are in or want to be in property, if it is the latter they are only using property as the vehicle to get money.⁣

Investment Banks are primarily in money. They cash out their position at the end of the trade, they may be almost instant arbitrage type opportunities or longer term holds, but they will cash out once their prediction is realised i.e. stock goes up, or down if shorted. Few investors actually believe truly in the stock they are holding, but Warren Buffett is a good example (I Just read the Snowman – great read!) of someone who is in stocks, or in companies. He sees it as an investment in that company and its long term fundamentals – he has held shares for decades. He invests in his investments and keeps doing so because he believes in them.⁣

It is important before setting out on a property journey to understand where you are. Neither are wrong, or right for that matter and it can be both or neither and you can of course have a dual strategy, which is what I personally believe in. McDonalds are to a large extent a property company that uses burgers as a vehicle to get occupancy on their real estate sites, but they have to make money from the burgers as well.⁣

I have some friends who do rent-2-rent, subletting in old language. They achieve great cash flow and many see themselves as being in property, which they are, but in reality they are only using it as a vehicle to make cash flow. They benefit from the increase in rents over time, but most likely will have to pay higher rents in return to achieve these.⁣

I went full time into property because I believe I am in property. I believe in the long term fundamentals and see property as any other physical commodity, it has value, you can touch it and there will always be a need for it. Since we came off the gold standard and moved to a fiat type currency – one that is not pegged to anything physical so just floats, tied to other floating things – we have seen constant inflation. Our Keynesian western economics relies on inflation. We all know with reasonable certainty that a cappuccino that costs £3 today will probably cost £6 in 10-20 years time. The other way of looking at it is that if you had sold the cappuccino and held the money, you would only then be able to buy half a cappuccino. Property generally outperforms the markets, which is not really a good thing, but it does not need to, it just needs to keep up with it and hold its value. Stocks and shares may rise or fall, companies come and go. Property stays. The great thing about it is that it pays really well along the way!⁣⁣
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