Manni Chopra forms one half of the award-winning Chopra Property Group, alongside her husband Romey. In addition to her success as a property developer and investor, Manni is also a published author, having written two books: Cash Rich Time Rich and Property Investors’ Money-Making Secrets.

With a successful track record of over 30 projects completed across West London, Reading, Slough, Bracknell, Watford, High Wycombe, Henley, and the surrounding areas, in 2023, the Chopra’s expanded their investment scope to include London and Greater London, targeting growth areas along the Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) route, M4, and A40/M40 corridors.

The couple have a strategy of acquiring vacant commercial properties - such as bank buildings, offices, and retail spaces - and repurposing them into mixed-use and residential spaces. The strategy has paid off, and they have won several awards for conversions into high-yielding HMOs, but in this article, I wanted to focus on a different strategy they used for the conversion of a building, previously used by Lloyds Bank, into separate apartments.

Manni explained: “The ex-Lloyds bank building in Henley-on-Thames, is a historic landmark that has served the community for over a century. Part of the building had already been converted into four flats, sold on long leases and generating ground rents for the freeholder.

“The rest of the building consisted of a large commercial space on the ground floor and ancillary office space on the first floor, operated by Lloyds Bank. The property had three entry points, which served the converted apartments, the bank customer entrance and a rear service entrance for staff.