Mention the term HMO to some people of a certain political disposition and you might observe a degree of distain appearing on their face, as it is fair to say that some landlords in the sector, and their properties, have for many years acquired a poor reputation. Unfortunately, there are still examples around the UK of poorly maintained HMOs, which fall well short of the standards many now expect in shared accommodation.

Thankfully, this was not the case when I recently visited a newly created Co-living HMO situated in the town centre of Brackley, Northamptonshire. What I discovered when I met with the property owners was a place that I personally would be more than happy to see a younger member of my family living in. The owners of this newly created property are from a local family in north Oxfordshire who are well versed in understanding what it takes to create and manage high quality shared accommodation HMOs and, as you can see from the attached photos, this really is a great example of an HMO.

And so I met at the Brackley property with Katie and Dan, who are the owners, but Katie has to-date already designed over 100 HMO properties as she is an interior designer and works with the PPP group, who are a highly regarded specialist franchise in the sector. Her parents, Clare and Mike Hedgecox, were also in attendance during my visit, and are a couple I had met many years ago that have created a good size property portfolio locally over the last 13 years.

I firstly asked Clare and Mike how and why they got started in property.

“We first invested in property through single buy-to-lets (BTLs) in Yorkshire from 2010,” said Clare. “The BTLs were aimed at providing us with a supplementary long-term income, although in reality the returns per property were too low for us to be overly confident in that strategy. With a vision to create financial and time freedom and ultimately be able to leave the corporate world, we looked at several franchise businesses, but found very quickly they were mostly just a different form of corporate life! Being tied to a franchise consumer brand, reporting our performance into the franchisor, and being limited in any exit strategies for us it actually felt like a step backwards.”