4 Bed 1 bathroom into a modern 5 Bed HMO with 2 Bathrooms
This was bought as an existing dated four bedroom HMO in the Roath area of Cardiff. It was a classic old ‘magnolia’ HMO and in desperate need of upgrading!
Our plan was to turn a room that was too small for a bedroom (under Cardiff councils’ HMO amenity standards) on the first floor into a new bathroom, knock through the kitchen and dining room to create an open plan kitchen living space and to extend into the attic space to create an additional bedroom.
This project took some time to get through conveyancing (7 months) even though it was bought with vacant possession. Once the refurb started to progress the world was hit with Covid! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!! FML.
All of a sudden a build that was progressing nicely ground to a halt. We went from having 10 tradies working on site to just two of us, lucky we’re best pals! We struggled to get materials sorted for site because of the ongoing lockdown. Everyone remembers how hard it was to get plaster, I was not paying the £40 a bag some people were charging for it! Nonetheless we grafted and completed it to our high standard. Every room was taken on first viewings and are still running at 100% occupation with some of our original tenants still residing at the property.
The Numbers:
Purchase price : £200,000
Purchase and refurb costs: £76,000
Total purchase price: £276,000
Valuation after refurb: £330,000
Rent £35,160
