X
X
Where did you hear about us?
The monthly magazine providing news analysis and professional research for the discerning private investor/landlord

The Cost of Selling and Market Risk

Cambridge based David Clouter talks with Kelly Lemon

First off a strong statement from an investor who not only has a buy to let portfolio but until recently was planning to expand it: "Buy to let is on the way out".  As such I am curious to know just what's changed as I sit down in Cambridge with David Clouter.

Like many investors David didn't start out in property, far from it. Instead he worked in the media industry as a radio producer for the BBC. As he puts it, he had his life all planned out and that didn't include investing in property. That's not to say he hadn't observed the value of property though. "When I was eight years old our next door neighbour decided to move and put their house on the market for £10k. I remember asking my father if he would consider buying it and renting it out. My motivation at the time was that I thought I would have a bigger garden to play in.

"My father wasn't keen on the idea and the property was sold to someone else. About twenty years later that same house and garden was sold for £170k to a developer who bulldozed the cottage and used the site to build three executive homes. My father was only paid £70k for part of his back garden where most of the new homes were built. The new access road ran through the neighbouring plot, without which his land was worthless. That certainly got me thinking, but I didn't pursue it at the time."

Instead David moved to London in 1982 to pursue a career in media. "I found myself living in a rented flat with noisy neighbours who had lots of parties. So when they moved out I contacted my landlord, who was living in Spain at the time, and asked him if I could take over the management and find someone quieter to replace them. He was happy to delegate the task so I started sub-letting, which today would be known as rent-to-rent."

Instead of simply acting as a managing agent, David leased the flat from the landlord and then found tenants of his own to rent it out, all because he didn't want noisy neighbours.

Want the full article?

subscribe