Westcote

Overview: We bought an un-modernised bungalow on a large plot in Reading on a buy-to-let mortgage in LX3 Investments Ltd, a SPV set up for this project. We secured planning permission to knock it down and built a block of eight apartments. The two original partners sold it to me for £750k (including my share). I made £80k profit from planning uplift and brought in joint venture partner for 50% ownership. Reading is a large town with a huge demand from professionals and young families for rental accommodation and this fits in well with our built-to-rent strategy. A lot of the challenges faced were to get the build off the ground. As first time Developers (ground up) and due to Brexit, it was difficult to get bank funding, S106 was a high £202k, contractors were quoting over £1 Million for build, numbers were squeezed, market was stagnant again due to Brexit.