1. How did you get into the property industry?
I fell into the industry by chance after working in a coffee kiosk outside the headquarters of one of London’s leading property agencies. I’ve never been afraid to make myself known to people so after a while the managers and directors knew who I was, and one of them asked me if I wanted to come in to interview for a role as a property services consultant. The interview went well and I managed to get the job, along with the name ‘coffee boy’ for the first year I was there!
From here, I was promoted into their in-house recruitment team where I spent another few years hiring agents to hit the streets of London. However in 2007, I decided I wanted to go out and start my own business. There was a gap in the market for a company to professionalise the house sharing trade and work with landlords to make the experience of letting out properties as smooth as possible, and this is where the idea for London Shared was formed.
2. Isn't your business model just 'sub-letting'?
We rent properties from landlords and then rent out rooms to working professionals so at its core, London Shared is a sub-letting business (though we don’t really like that as a moniker). There is a negative perception amongst people with subletting or the “rent to rent” industry, which unfortunately is quite often justified. There are many rent to rent “gurus” out there who sell seminars where they convince people that rent to rent is a simple way to achieve hassle-free, passive income with no money down which is simply not correct, it takes a lot of time and effort to do this properly.
At London Shared, we do much more than just take a property and let it on without any work. All of our properties are fully furnished, with between £10,000-15,000 being spent on every house-share to bring it up to the standard we require for our tenants. We have an interior designer whose sole job is to fit out our properties and a compliance officer responsible for all the licensing necessary to operate our business model.
3. How does London Shared differ from its competitors?
Being one of the original house sharing companies in London and with nine years of experience behind us (we celebrated our 9th birthday this week), we have a proven track record and testimonials from both landlords and tenants to back this up.
We ensure we are always on top of legislation surrounding our business model, making sure that we not only are using the correct contracts for both landlords and tenants but also adhering to any rules and regulations set by the councils of the boroughs we operate in.
Having let to over 2500 tenants, we have an immense amount of experience within the house-share industry and consider ourselves to be experts. This is important as we know exactly what does and does not work within the model, whether that’s with regards to property types, pricing or the layout of rooms. That sort of knowledge only comes with time.
As a company, we are proud of what we do and will always put ourselves forward as being the “face” of the rent-to-rent industry. We are sponsor and supporter of best practice in rent-to-rent for www.propertyribes.com which is the biggest Landlord forum in the UK and have the support of leading figures in the industry such as Phil Spencer. We also reinvest our profits each year into staff development to help improve our business and guarantee the best service for both landlords and tenants.
4. How will the changes to stamp duty and BTL tax relief that come into effect in April affect business?
I’m not sure it will have an immediate effect on our business however it is something to watch as it may mean many landlords leave the buy-to-let market because it is no longer a commercially viable option for them. Considering we are in the midst of a housing shortage I would have thought that policies would be implemented to encourage buy-to-let investors rather than punishing them. The reality is the landlords we deal with on an everyday basis are not-buy-to leave investors – they are real people, providing additional homes for young working professionals struggling to get onto the property ladder and this is something that should be celebrated rather than condemned.
5. What do you love most about your job?
The people. I feel really lucky to be surrounded by such a great team within our office. All of the staff at London Shared really believe in what we are doing and this is reflected in their work and the atmosphere within the office. Seeing staff progress and develop within the company has been a big thrill of mine, as it only feels like yesterday that I was given my first shot in property.
Secondly it has to be the clients that I work with. I am predominantly dealing with agents and landlords on a day to day basis, which I really enjoy. I have been fortunate to meet so many different people over the years and I have ended up forming very close relationships with them.
6. What are your predictions for the next 12 months?
The only predictions I am happy to make are based around my own business. The market is too hard to predict at this point in time and when it comes to predictions there are people much smarter than me who should be making them!
All I know is that with London Shared we are going to continue our expansion. We grew by 50% last year so it would be great to do the same again. We are looking to establish ourselves in new areas and also cement ourselves as the number one house sharing company within London.
