Case Study
A 10 year plan
“Property for Life provides opportunities with real discounts and therefore real equity in the property” says Chris Broadfoot, a seasoned investor and client of Property for Life.
Chris has been investing in property for just 18 months, but in that time he has purchased 11 investment properties and has developed an exceptional level of skill and knowledge. Chris buys all of his investment property 50/50 with a friend and this enables them to greatly reduce many of the associated risks in addition to enabling easier organisation post completion. “There is a lot involved in letting a property once we have completed, from sourcing good quality tenants to hanging curtains”, says Chris.
The first purchase was an apartment in Canary Wharf in summer 2004. This was so successful that several other purchases quickly followed and the portfolio grew rapidly to total 7 properties. In an effort to further reduce risk by spreading the portfolio Chris decided to purchase a number of properties in overseas markets that were at varying stages of the growth life cycle, and so property in Dubai, Cape Verde, Bulgaria and Australia joined the growing portfolio. “These properties will all perform differently” explains Chris. “Australia is a very well established and relatively safe market whilst Dubai’s astounding growth carries substantial risk but huge potential rewards”.
Currently, Chris estimates the total portfolio value to be around £1.5 million with equity in excess of £250,000. Given that this has been achieved in just 18 months and during some rather challenging economic times, future growth looks very strong. “Over the next 5 years we are looking to build the portfolio to between £4 million and £5 million, which we feel is fairly achievable” says Chris. I believe that within 10 years we will be in a position to draw equity out of the properties as a cash bonus each year”.
Chris says: “We use Property for Life because of the ease of moving through the process from initially finding the property to completion. Being a ‘one stop shop’ makes life a lot easier and results in far less hassle and stress. This makes Property for Life a pleasure to work with. If I would give any advice I would suggest attending a Property for Life property investment academy as it I found that it refocused everything I believed about buying property and the reason why I was doing it”.
We wish Chris the very best of luck and look forward to working with him over the coming months and years.
